20024-05-23 ミシガン大学
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.umich.edu/renewable-grid-recovering-electricity-from-heat-storage-hits-44-efficiency/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435124002022?via%3Dihub
高効率エアブリッジ型熱光起電力電池 High-efficiency air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cells
Bosun Roy-Layinde, Jihun Lim, Claire Arneson, Stephen R. Forrest, Andrej Lenert
Joule Published: May 22, 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2024.05.002
Highlights
- Air-bridge TPV cells are fabricated in a range of band gaps from 0.74 to 1.1 eV
- Cells reflect nearly all of the incident below-band-gap radiation
- Up to 44% efficient conversion is shown using emitter temperatures below 1,500°C
- Compatibility with stable emitters and lower temperatures supports deployment
Context & scale
Thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) have the potential to enable a wide array of critical energy technologies, including a new generation of power-to-heat-to-power systems for inexpensive multi-day energy storage known as thermal batteries. Although energy storage at very high temperatures (>1,600°C) has been reported in pilot thermal batteries, the operating temperatures of most thermal emitters remain lower due to thermal stability issues. Realizing high TPV performance using readily available emitter temperatures and materials should accelerate the adoption of TPV systems. This work demonstrates air-bridge TPV efficiencies that are approaching practical thermodynamic limits without requiring ultrahigh emitter temperatures. The peak and average performances are significantly greater than previously attained in TPVs, promising large improvements in the round-trip efficiency and cost of thermal batteries.
Summary
Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells generate electricity by converting infrared radiation emitted by a hot thermal source. Air-bridge TPVs have demonstrated enhanced power conversion efficiencies by recuperating a large amount of power carried by below-band-gap (out-of-band) photons. Here, we demonstrate single-junction InGaAs(P) air-bridge TPVs that exhibit up to 44% efficiency under 1,435°C blackbody illumination. The air-bridge design leads to near-unity reflectance (97%–99%) of out-of-band photons for ternary and quaternary TPVs whose band gaps range from 0.74 to 1.1 eV. These results suggest the applicability of the air-bridge cells to a range of semiconductor systems suitable for electricity generation from thermal sources found in both consumer and industrial applications, including thermal batteries.
Graphical abstract
