WSe2 Expected to Be Ideal Material for Flexible Solar Cells

WSe₂ is expected to become an ideal material for new flexible solar cells. The Research team of Vienna University of Technology developed the diode with WSe₂ as the energy storage material for the first time. While significantly improving the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of solar cells, it could reduce the weight of battery products at the same time.

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. Under the conditions that enough light, the solar cell can output the voltage instantaneously and generate a current under the condition of a loop. In addition to producing energy, they can be used as a photodetector (for example infrared detectors), detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation near the visible range, or measuring light intensity.

Benefit from the advent of solar cells, it not only relieves the crisis of natural resources but also can effectively reduce the greenhouse effect. This is mainly because solar energy is inexhaustible, and photovoltaic cells do not require fuel and emit carbon dioxide either.

There are higher conversion efficiency and more mature production technologies of the early silicon photovoltaic cells had, but because of the high cost of monocrystalline silicon and the bulky products, they were gradually replaced by new flexible photovoltaic cells.

According to researchers, WSe₂ materials could absorb light like graphene, and then the absorbed light can be converted into electricity. Compared with other materials, tungsten diselenide owns better electronic characteristics and effectively improves the energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

The main structure of tungsten diselenide is composed of upper and lower layers of selenium atoms connected to the middle layer of tungsten atoms. Its thermal conductivity is about one hundred thousandths of the diamond with the best thermal conductivity. It is the lowest thermal conductivity material in the world. In other words, WSe₂ material is not easy to dissipate heat and holds high energy conversion efficiency.

Besides, it is worth mentioning that China is abundant in tungsten resources to make the source of WSe₂ wide and in a reasonable price, which saves lots of costs for photovoltaic companies, reducing to a certain extent expend of new flexible solar cells.

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