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Researchers have developed a new hybrid device -- pairing silicon with organic, carbon-based molecules -- that can convert blue photons into red photons, paving the way for more efficient solar energy conversion.
Silicon's electronic properties make it a popular choice for a variety of technologies. The material, one of Earth's most abundant, is used to make everything from semiconductors to solar cells. But silicon isn't great at turning light into electricity.
While silicon can convert red photons into electricity just fine, its attempts to convert blue photons, which carry twice as much energy as red photons, yields mostly wasted thermal energy.
For the new device, engineers paired silicon with a carbon-based material called anthracene that converts blue photons into red photons, which the silicon can more easily convert into electricity.
Achieving spin-triplet exciton transfer between silicon and molecular acceptors for photon upconversion$, Nature Chemistry (DOI: doi:10.1038/s41557-019-0385-8)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Quicksilver on Friday December 13 2019, @01:26PM
First objection was Converting a blue photon into a red is just throwing away energy but through the magic of RTFA it says they are converting one blue to two red photons. (Yay! More = Gooder! Yippie!!)
But...
The article fails to expand even a bit past that. Particle energy levels are discrete so does this work only on a specific wavelength or a narrow wavelength? That is the important bit. Unless it works across a broad range of frequencies it won't yield the results needed to actually make electricity.
I realize they need to "dumb down" raw research when they release it to the masses but it is frustrating when it is scrubbed clean of all content besides what could be put in a title.