[HN Gopher] Dye-sensitized solar cell material will charge in an...
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       Dye-sensitized solar cell material will charge in any environment
        
       Author : johlo
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2022-07-17 10:14 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.machinedesign.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.machinedesign.com)
        
       | photochemsyn wrote:
       | > "The [dye-sensitized solar cell] consists of a porous
       | conductive powder layer, which was formed, for example, by screen
       | printing a conductive powder ink containing terpineol and
       | titanium metal powder onto a porous glass-fiber substrate."
       | 
       | This kind of TiO2-based DSSC approach has been around for perhaps
       | ten years at least. Here's one of the earlier papers (2011)
       | listing ~4% efficiency (fairly low). The usable lifetime of the
       | material has been one of the big problems in commercialization.
       | 
       | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20934187/
       | 
       | This article is a better overview of the current state of the
       | industry. Maybe some of the earlier problems have been solved,
       | maybe not.
       | 
       | https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/these-next-gen-so...
       | 
       | > "There are two main reasons for this. The first is DSSCs' track
       | record of problems with chemical stability and subpar performance
       | in real-world applications. The second is that there are far more
       | effective technologies for converting direct sunlight to
       | electricity..."
       | 
       | China seems to have mastered relatively cheap monocrystalline Si
       | cell construction since ~2015, which have high efficiency and
       | long lifetime and are basically the best solar PV option on the
       | market by a good margin. This is what those tariffs on Chinese
       | solar panels are really all about, but no US manufacturer has
       | anything similar in quality to offer. That's the result of
       | miniscule American R&D budgets in the RE sector for 40 years, of
       | course.
        
         | iforgotpassword wrote:
         | Thanks, I came to ask what the catch might be. After a while,
         | these "revolutionary breakthroughs" in solar tech, battery
         | tech, ... get a little exhausting and the default assumption is
         | some company trying to rake in VC, drive up stock price or
         | whatever. Just not a product we'll ever see.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-17 23:02 UTC)