SolarWindow Electricity Generating Liquid Coating
Solar based Energy Harvesting is not new but as identified from SolarWindow WEB Site their coating technology offers interesting opportunities. The details here are downloaded from https://www.solarwindow.com/technology/ for your review.
It is transparent & ultra-lightweight and works in natural & artificial light as self-charging on glass, flexible plastic, and films. Could transform ordinary surfaces into electricity generating products.
Tunable for power output by managing color and transparency. Match to existing or planned color palettes.
Solution processable and coating process agnostic. Roll-to-Roll and Sheet-to-Sheet high throughput manufacturing. Proprietary processes for LiquidElectricity™ coating applications.
Technology process as below:
- Light energy activates coatings.
- Light activated coatings excite electrons.
- The flow of electrons is electricity.
Positive and negative charges are directed to their respective conductors, and an electrical circuit is generated, resulting in the flow of electricity. Their LiquidElectricity™ (coatings and application processes) generates electricity on glass, flexible plastics, and films.
- First, LiquidElectricity™ is customized for color and transparency based on the specific application, and then applied in layers to a substrate (glass, plastic, or film).
- Next, light hits LiquidElectricity™, generating holes (+) which are positively charged, and electrons which are negatively charged (-).
- Holes (+) and electrons (-) are attracted to the hole/electron transport layers, where they migrate through to the conductive layers known as ‘anode’ and ’cathode’.
- Holes (+) move to the anode and electrons (-) move to the cathode.
- Positive and negative charges are directed to their respective conductors, and an electrical circuit is generated, resulting in the flow of electricity.
- Electrons are donated to the acceptor layer, which has a deeper HOMO and LUMO effect.
- The resulting holes will remain on the donor side with a positive charge.
- Light must be equal-to or greater-than the material bandgap (Eg) to allow an electron to move.
- In organic photovoltaics (OPV) two layers create a material boundary, the Acceptor Layer, and the Donor Layer.
- The material in each layer has its own specific level of electrical potential. The difference between each material’s electrical potential stimulates the movement of electrons (exciton dissociation by thermal energy). This movement of electrons generates electricity.
- The total ‘power’ of this electricity is determined by the efficiency of the materials used in the Acceptor and Donor Layers.
- To enhance efficiency, the specialty materials in both the Acceptor Layer and Donor Layer are engineered based on levels of their Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) and Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO). These levels help optimize the amount of electricity generated by LiquidElectricity™.
SolarWindow™ products are created by applying ultra-thin layers of LiquidElectricity™ coatings on to glass and flexible plastics to form small solar cells. When grouped, these cells are called “strings” or “arrays”, and their arrangement in our final product is generically referred to as an “organic photovoltaic” (OPV) solar array. Importantly, these liquid coatings are primarily made of earth abundant materials that do not contain toxic metals like Lead, Cadmium, Selenium, or Chromium.
They use organic materials (polymers) which are dissolved into liquid form and then these liquids applied to surfaces such as flexible plastics and glass to produce see-through products which generate electricity.
Applying our LiquidElectricity™ coatings onto glass surfaces makes technology suited for high-speed roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet manufacturing. High-speed manufacturing techniques typically result in lower production costs. LiquidElectricity™ coatings are able to be produced in a color wheel of architecturally aesthetic varieties while remaining see-through.
When applied to glass, LiquidElectricity™ coatings appear with a pleasant neutral color and tint. They are aesthetically appealing and not disruptive to the eye, seemingly passive. SolarWindow™ products capture energy from the sun and other light sources while generating valuable electricity.
See-through, with high level of ‘visible light transmission and able to generate significant electricity from natural, artificial or even in shaded low light conditions. Conventional Solar PV does not work in artificial, shaded, or low light.
For more information contact SolarWindow USA, 430 Park Avenue, Suite 702, New York, NY 10022
