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Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density
Thermophotovoltaic approaches that take advantage of near-field evanescent modes are being actively explored due to their potential for high-power density and high-efficiency energy conversion. However, progress towards functional near-field thermophotovoltaic devices has been limited by challenges...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8285488/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34272361 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24587-7 |
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author | Mittapally, Rohith Lee, Byungjun Zhu, Linxiao Reihani, Amin Lim, Ju Won Fan, Dejiu Forrest, Stephen R. Reddy, Pramod Meyhofer, Edgar |
author_facet | Mittapally, Rohith Lee, Byungjun Zhu, Linxiao Reihani, Amin Lim, Ju Won Fan, Dejiu Forrest, Stephen R. Reddy, Pramod Meyhofer, Edgar |
author_sort | Mittapally, Rohith |
collection | PubMed |
description | Thermophotovoltaic approaches that take advantage of near-field evanescent modes are being actively explored due to their potential for high-power density and high-efficiency energy conversion. However, progress towards functional near-field thermophotovoltaic devices has been limited by challenges in creating thermally robust planar emitters and photovoltaic cells designed for near-field thermal radiation. Here, we demonstrate record power densities of ~5 kW/m(2) at an efficiency of 6.8%, where the efficiency of the system is defined as the ratio of the electrical power output of the PV cell to the radiative heat transfer from the emitter to the PV cell. This was accomplished by developing novel emitter devices that can sustain temperatures as high as 1270 K and positioning them into the near-field (<100 nm) of custom-fabricated InGaAs-based thin film photovoltaic cells. In addition to demonstrating efficient heat-to-electricity conversion at high power density, we report the performance of thermophotovoltaic devices across a range of emitter temperatures (~800 K–1270 K) and gap sizes (70 nm–7 µm). The methods and insights achieved in this work represent a critical step towards understanding the fundamental principles of harvesting thermal energy in the near-field. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8285488 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82854882021-07-23 Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density Mittapally, Rohith Lee, Byungjun Zhu, Linxiao Reihani, Amin Lim, Ju Won Fan, Dejiu Forrest, Stephen R. Reddy, Pramod Meyhofer, Edgar Nat Commun Article Thermophotovoltaic approaches that take advantage of near-field evanescent modes are being actively explored due to their potential for high-power density and high-efficiency energy conversion. However, progress towards functional near-field thermophotovoltaic devices has been limited by challenges in creating thermally robust planar emitters and photovoltaic cells designed for near-field thermal radiation. Here, we demonstrate record power densities of ~5 kW/m(2) at an efficiency of 6.8%, where the efficiency of the system is defined as the ratio of the electrical power output of the PV cell to the radiative heat transfer from the emitter to the PV cell. This was accomplished by developing novel emitter devices that can sustain temperatures as high as 1270 K and positioning them into the near-field (<100 nm) of custom-fabricated InGaAs-based thin film photovoltaic cells. In addition to demonstrating efficient heat-to-electricity conversion at high power density, we report the performance of thermophotovoltaic devices across a range of emitter temperatures (~800 K–1270 K) and gap sizes (70 nm–7 µm). The methods and insights achieved in this work represent a critical step towards understanding the fundamental principles of harvesting thermal energy in the near-field. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8285488/ /pubmed/34272361 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24587-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Mittapally, Rohith Lee, Byungjun Zhu, Linxiao Reihani, Amin Lim, Ju Won Fan, Dejiu Forrest, Stephen R. Reddy, Pramod Meyhofer, Edgar Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title | Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title_full | Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title_fullStr | Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title_full_unstemmed | Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title_short | Near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
title_sort | near-field thermophotovoltaics for efficient heat to electricity conversion at high power density |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8285488/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34272361 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24587-7 |
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