Scientists at the Swiss Technical University of Zurich have developed a new type of ceramic panel that turned out to be 1000 times more powerful than the old solar-oriented silicon boards. It is interesting that from one square meter of ceramics you can produce the same amount of electricity as from a thousand square meters. m of a conventional volumetric solar panel. Photoelectric ceramics are transforming the solar energy market.
Such ceramics are special and have high performance due to the nanostructure. It consists of two important components: a material that has a good light absorption coefficient and another material that has electrical conductivity.
The light-absorbing layer uses aluminum oxide and perovskite nanoparticles. These two elements have excellent light absorption characteristics. Perovskites are included in highly stable aluminum oxide, which protects them from heat, moisture and mechanical influences.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000When sunlight hits the ceramic, the electrons in the perovskite nanoparticles are excited and move to a higher energy level. The electrons are then very efficiently collected and transported into aluminum oxide crystals, which are channels in ceramics. Then they are brought to the surface to create an electric current.
According to the journalists, the specific structure and texture allows ceramics to evenly accumulate and store the sun's energy over its entire surface and reach a reaction temperature of 1500 °C. This is a major breakthrough over previous solar cell designs, where the incident solar flux gradually decreased as it entered the reactor.
Researchers use the technology to predict that it could provide “virtually unlimited amounts of free electricity for home and office”. Ceramics have the ability to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen under the influence of sunlight, which leads to the generation and storage of pure hydrogen fuel. Experts cannot explain how ceramics reach such a temperature.