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Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation

Recent advances in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power generation have produced notable gains in efficiency, particularly at very high emitter temperatures. However, there remains substantial room for improving TPV conversion of waste, solar, and nuclear heat streams at temperatures below 1,100°C. Here,...

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Autores principales: Burger, Tobias, Roy-Layinde, Bosun, Lentz, Rebecca, Berquist, Zachary J., Forrest, Stephen R., Lenert, Andrej
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36409918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215977119
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author Burger, Tobias
Roy-Layinde, Bosun
Lentz, Rebecca
Berquist, Zachary J.
Forrest, Stephen R.
Lenert, Andrej
author_facet Burger, Tobias
Roy-Layinde, Bosun
Lentz, Rebecca
Berquist, Zachary J.
Forrest, Stephen R.
Lenert, Andrej
author_sort Burger, Tobias
collection PubMed
description Recent advances in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power generation have produced notable gains in efficiency, particularly at very high emitter temperatures. However, there remains substantial room for improving TPV conversion of waste, solar, and nuclear heat streams at temperatures below 1,100°C. Here, we demonstrate the concept of transmissive spectral control that enables efficient recuperation of below-bandgap photons by allowing them to transmit through the cell to be absorbed by a secondary emitter. We fabricate a semitransparent TPV cell consisting of a thin InGaAs–InP heterojunction membrane supported by an infrared-transparent heat-conducting substrate. The device absorbs less than 1% of below-bandgap radiation, resulting in a TPV efficiency of 32.5% at an emitter temperature of 1,036°C. To our knowledge, this represents an 8% absolute improvement (~33% relative) in efficiency relative to the best TPV devices at such low temperatures. By enabling near-zero photon loss, the semitransparent architecture facilitates high TPV efficiencies over a wide range of applications.
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spelling pubmed-98601512023-05-21 Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation Burger, Tobias Roy-Layinde, Bosun Lentz, Rebecca Berquist, Zachary J. Forrest, Stephen R. Lenert, Andrej Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Recent advances in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power generation have produced notable gains in efficiency, particularly at very high emitter temperatures. However, there remains substantial room for improving TPV conversion of waste, solar, and nuclear heat streams at temperatures below 1,100°C. Here, we demonstrate the concept of transmissive spectral control that enables efficient recuperation of below-bandgap photons by allowing them to transmit through the cell to be absorbed by a secondary emitter. We fabricate a semitransparent TPV cell consisting of a thin InGaAs–InP heterojunction membrane supported by an infrared-transparent heat-conducting substrate. The device absorbs less than 1% of below-bandgap radiation, resulting in a TPV efficiency of 32.5% at an emitter temperature of 1,036°C. To our knowledge, this represents an 8% absolute improvement (~33% relative) in efficiency relative to the best TPV devices at such low temperatures. By enabling near-zero photon loss, the semitransparent architecture facilitates high TPV efficiencies over a wide range of applications. National Academy of Sciences 2022-11-21 2022-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9860151/ /pubmed/36409918 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215977119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Burger, Tobias
Roy-Layinde, Bosun
Lentz, Rebecca
Berquist, Zachary J.
Forrest, Stephen R.
Lenert, Andrej
Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title_full Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title_fullStr Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title_full_unstemmed Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title_short Semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
title_sort semitransparent thermophotovoltaics for efficient utilization of moderate temperature thermal radiation
topic Physical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36409918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215977119
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