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Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene

Molecular solar thermal (MOST) systems are working their way as a possible technology to store solar light and release it when necessary. Such systems could, in principle, constitute a solution to the energy storage problem characteristic of solar cells and are conceived, at a first instance, as sim...

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Autores principales: Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia, Marazzi, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10130657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37123877
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2023.1171848
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author Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia
Marazzi, Marco
author_facet Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia
Marazzi, Marco
author_sort Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia
collection PubMed
description Molecular solar thermal (MOST) systems are working their way as a possible technology to store solar light and release it when necessary. Such systems could, in principle, constitute a solution to the energy storage problem characteristic of solar cells and are conceived, at a first instance, as simple molecular photoswitches. Nevertheless, the optimization of their different required properties is presently limiting their technological scale up. From the chemical perspective, we need to design a novel MOST system based on unconventional photoswitches. Here, by applying multi-configurational quantum chemistry methods, we unravel the potentialities of ad hoc-designed molecular photoswitches, which aim to photoproduce cubane or cubadiene as high-energy isomers that can be thermally (or eventually catalytically) reverted to the initial structure, releasing their stored energy. Specifically, while cubane can be photoproduced via different paths depending on the reactant tricycle diene conformation, an undesired bicyclic by-product limits its application to MOST systems. An evolution of this starting design toward cubadiene formation is therefore proposed, avoiding conformational equilibria and by-products, considerably red shifting the absorption to reach the visible portion of the solar spectrum and maintaining an estimated storage density that is expected to overcome the current MOST reference system (norbornadiene/quadricyclane), although consistently increasing the photoisomerization energy barrier.
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spelling pubmed-101306572023-04-27 Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia Marazzi, Marco Front Chem Chemistry Molecular solar thermal (MOST) systems are working their way as a possible technology to store solar light and release it when necessary. Such systems could, in principle, constitute a solution to the energy storage problem characteristic of solar cells and are conceived, at a first instance, as simple molecular photoswitches. Nevertheless, the optimization of their different required properties is presently limiting their technological scale up. From the chemical perspective, we need to design a novel MOST system based on unconventional photoswitches. Here, by applying multi-configurational quantum chemistry methods, we unravel the potentialities of ad hoc-designed molecular photoswitches, which aim to photoproduce cubane or cubadiene as high-energy isomers that can be thermally (or eventually catalytically) reverted to the initial structure, releasing their stored energy. Specifically, while cubane can be photoproduced via different paths depending on the reactant tricycle diene conformation, an undesired bicyclic by-product limits its application to MOST systems. An evolution of this starting design toward cubadiene formation is therefore proposed, avoiding conformational equilibria and by-products, considerably red shifting the absorption to reach the visible portion of the solar spectrum and maintaining an estimated storage density that is expected to overcome the current MOST reference system (norbornadiene/quadricyclane), although consistently increasing the photoisomerization energy barrier. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10130657/ /pubmed/37123877 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2023.1171848 Text en Copyright © 2023 Merino-Robledillo and Marazzi. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Chemistry
Merino-Robledillo, Cecilia
Marazzi, Marco
Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title_full Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title_fullStr Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title_full_unstemmed Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title_short Taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: Pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
title_sort taking up the quest for novel molecular solar thermal systems: pros and cons of storing energy with cubane and cubadiene
topic Chemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10130657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37123877
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2023.1171848
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