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Research & Reviews: Journal of Material Sciences | ISSN: 2321-6212 | Volume 6
Theoretical, Materials and Condensed Matter Physics
5th International Conference on
November 26-28, 2018 | Los Angeles, USA
High-temperature solar cells
Dieter M Gruen
Dimerond Technologies LLC, USA
The conversion of light to electricity can be done indirectly by first converting light to high-temperature heat and then
heat to electricity or directly using solar cells. These processes are today carried out on a large scale in physically separate
solar plants. The indirect process is limited by the thermodynamically dictated Carnot efficiency while the direct conversion
efficiency has an upper bound the Shockley-Queisser limit. Is there a way to overcome these efficiency limitations without
violating physical laws? Clearly, a way dramatically to lower solar electricity costs would be to combine both processes in a
single solar power plant facility without substantially increasing its capital cost. Such a hybrid procedure would effectively
double the conversion efficiency but it would require the use of solar cells that operate at 400 Centigrade or above. Such
cells do not exist today and therefore this attractive approach cannot be implemented. This presentation focuses on recent
breakthrough developments in condensed matter physics and chemistry that are anticipated to lead to the creation of a new
generation of high-temperature solar cells. Spectacular advances have occurred in the synthesis and nanophotonics of wide
band-gap (WBG) semiconductors as well as in understanding the unique quantum electrodynamic properties of graphene
for which the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded. The p/n heterojunctions between these two materials are predicted
to allow very effective separation of electron/hole pairs formed in graphene by the absorption of the total solar spectrum
waveguided along the length of the WBG nanowires. These materials were selected because their electronic structures are
influenced only minimally by increasing temperature and because these materials are not resource limited as well as being
environmentally benign.
Biography
Dieter M Gruen received his PhD at the University of Chicago in Chemical Physics. He is an Argonne Distinguished Fellow, Emeritus and President of Dimerond
Technologies LLC. He is an internationally recognized scientist and innovator with more than 400 publications.
Dieter M Gruen, Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci. 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2321-6212-C10-041