Scientists find way to make solar cells store energy

American scientists state that they have developed a method that allows solar cells to retain their electrical charge for longer. This should make it easier to store solar energy in the panels.

The researchers, who are affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles, say their idea is based on plants that generate energy through photosynthesis. Their way works in cheap, plastic solar cells and causes the positive and negative charges to be pulled apart. In this way tension remains and energy storage can be provided. Normally, the positive and negative charges only stay separated for a few milliseconds, which complicates the storage process.

By looking at how plants do photosynthesis, the scientists got ideas about how to improve the separation of the charges. They created a nature-inspired structure with a polymer donor that absorbs sunlight and then passes the electrons to an acceptor of fullerene, a ball-shaped structure of carbon known as a buckyball. Using the technology they designed, a structure could be created in the two components that improved the separation of the charges. As a result, the generated electrical charge must be able to be retained for up to weeks. The results of the study have been published in the authoritative scientific journal Science.

According to the scientists, the structures, the polymer ‘spaghetti’ and the fullerene ‘meatballs’, can assemble themselves. This also makes the whole thing more environmentally friendly than conventional techniques. For the time being, this is a proof of concept: no solar panels have been developed with the technology yet. Once this is successful, solar panels should be able to hold their charge much longer than is currently the case, reducing the need for external energy storage, for example.