This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2022-0002470 and 10-2022-0128483 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jan. 7, 2022 and Oct. 7, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a photo-charging storage device, and more particularly, to a photo-charging energy storage device which integrally connects a perovskite solar cell and a supercapacitor to be enabled to be charged with high voltage
Due to the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, most of the things that are commonly used in everyday life are connected to the Internet, and the Internet of Things (IOTS) era was held. In order to constantly deliver/receive information, communication sensors of the Internet of Things must be supplied constantly with minimal maintenance or without maintenance.
In the case of traditional power transmitted through power generation-transmission and distribution, the power can be supplied stably through the cable, but the traditional power cannot escape from a fixed position.
On the contrary, in the case of a battery which is currently commonly used, it is possible to supply wireless power, but the battery as a device only having a storage function needs to be periodically charged and replaced.
Therefore, the necessity of the appropriate wireless sensor is emerging in line with the continuous growth of the IOTS market. Distributed energy harvested in the surrounding environment of electronic devices is considered an alternative to directly supply to each sensor of the IoT network.
However, renewable energy such as solar light, wind power, and geothermal heat is intermittent and is affected by external environments such as time, weather and location. Therefore, in order to solve the periodic recharge problem of the energy storage device and the intermittent power production problem of the energy production device, the energy production device energy and the energy storage device are combined and used. Currently, the energy storage device and the energy production device are manufactured individually and connected through an external electric cable. The typical combination of this type is the Energy Storage System (ESS) using a solar power plant and lithium ion battery, and is manufactured by connecting the solar power panel and the lithium ion battery.
When both devices are connected through an external circuit, there is a problem in that energy loss occurs due to an electric wire, and a design and production process of a system is complicated, and miniaturization id difficult. In order to compensate for these limitations, a concept of integrating energy collection and storage function into one device is reported to produce a power source which can be miniaturized and can be light in weight, and which is highly efficient.
Such an integrated device is manufactured in a form in which the energy production device and the energy storage device share one electrode. Unlike a time when two elements are connected to the existing external electric wire, electric charges formed in the energy production device are immediately transmitted to the energy storage device through a common electrode, so the integrated device shows fast charging and excellent efficiency. However, since the study of such system development is still in an initial stage, the concept of the integrated device is simply attaching two devices without considering an operating voltage and an operating environment of the actual electronic device.
For this reason, it is necessary to suggest an integrated device that shows excellent efficiency, and secures long-time life stability and shows a high operating voltage, and in light of such a state, the solar cell includes elements such as a relatively easy process and low price, and richness of solar energy, so the solar cell is the most attractive candidate as an energy production device.
However, the threshold voltage of a single cell of cells such as silicone solar cells, organic solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, and perovskite solar cells (PSC) as 1 V or less does not reach an operating potential section of a lithium ion battery operating at 3.5V or higher. In order to solve the problem, multiple solar cells should be connected in series or a voltage should be boosted through additional introduction of a boost converter.
In particular, the introduction of the boost converter is not a problem for a large-scale energy production and storage system with a spatial room, but it is difficult to apply the boost converter as a power source of a small electronic device.
Contrary to this, since an electric double layer based supercapacitor stores energy through physical adsorption, the operating potential section does not exist. Further, since a fast response property of the supercapacitor according to an external electric field change can be efficiently stored, a form in which the solar cell and the supercapacitor are combined can be configured.
However, the integrated device in which the solar cell and the supercapacitor are just combined is not appropriate as a power source of an actual IoT sensor power supply due to a low operating voltage and moisture sensitivity of the solar cell, a technical solving means for solving this problem is required.
The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a photo-charging energy storage device which is enabled to be self-charged by combining a solar cell and a supercapacitor and used as a power source of an IoTs sensor.
Further, the present invention has also been made in an effort to provide a photo-charging energy storage device which combines multiple solar cells and supercapacitors connected directly to form a high voltage upon self-charging.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a photo-charging energy storage device including: a solar cell; a conductive connector electrically connected to the solar cell, and combined with the solar cell; and a supercapacitor combined with the conductive connector, and charged with the solar cell via an electrical connection with the solar cell through the conductive connector.
In this case, the solar cell comprise a conductive oxide layer made of tin oxide glass, an electron transport layer sintered on the conductive oxide layer, a perovskite layer combined with the electron transport layer, a hole transport layer adsorbed on the perovskite layer, and a silver layer deposited on the hole transport layer.
Further, the electron transport layer comprises a c-TiO2 layer and an M-TiO2 layer. Further, the perovskite layer is formed by spin-coating the electron transport layer with an active layer solution formed by mixing PbI2 (TCI, Japan), MAI, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF), and annealing.
Further, the hole transport layer (HTL) is formed by mixing spiro-cometad (Jilin, China), a Trifluoromthane (Trifluoromthane) sulfonimide lithium solution, and 4-tert-butylpyridine, and chlorobenzene and spin coating the mixed solution on the perovskite layer.
Further, the silver layer is deposited on the hole transport layer by a thermal evaporation. Further, the conductive connector is made of a silver paste, and the silver paste is thermally cured to combine the perovskite solar cell and the supercapacitor.
Meanwhile, the supercapacitor is configured to include a first electrode layer electrically connected to the solar cell by the conductive connector, an electrolyte layer combined with the first electrode layer, and made of an ionogel electrolyte, and a second electrode layer connected to the electrolyte layer and being chargeable/dischargeable with the first electrode layer through the electrolyte layer.
In this case, the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer comprises carbon black (super P, TIMCAL) and poly vinylindene fluoride (PVdF, HSV900, Kynar).
Further, the electrolyte layer is made of ionogel electrolyte including polyurethane acrylate (PUA) oligomer, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imida zolium bis (trifluoromethyl sulfonyl) imid (EMITFSI), and 2-hydroxy-2-methyl prophenon (HMPP).
Further, multiple solar cells are connected in series to self-charge the supercapacitor with a high voltage.
According to the present invention, there is an effect that a photo-charging energy storage device is enabled to be self-charged by combining a solar cell and a supercapacitor to be used as a power source of an IoTs sensor.
According to the present invention, there is an effect that a photo-charging energy storage device can be used as a power source of an IoTs sensor by forming a charging voltage of 3 V or more upon self charging by combining a solar cell and a supercapacitor.
Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment for carrying the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, and in this case, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise” and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be regarded to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements. In addition, terms such as “ . . . unit” described in this specification are units of at least one function or operation when describing electronic hardware or electronic software, and is regarded to mean one component, function, purposes, points or driving elements when describing the machine device. Further, hereinafter, the same component or the similar component will be described by using the same reference numerals, and a duplicated description of the same component will be omitted.
As illustrated in
The perovskite solar cell (PSC) includes a conductive oxide layer (FTO), an electron transport layer (ETL), a perovskite layer (MAPbI3), a hole transport layer (HTL), and a silver layer (Ag).
The conductive oxide layer (FTO) is made of tin oxide glass, and the electron transport layer (ETL) is sintered to configure a transparent electrode.
The perovskite layer (MAPbI3) is adsorbed and coupled to the electron transport layer (ETL). Such an electron transport layer (ETL) forms gradient energy alignment between a perovskite adsorption layer and an electrode material to reduce a potential energy barrier for transporting electrons to an electrode and blocks hole transportation. In the case of the exemplary embodiment, the electron transport layer is made of titanium dioxide (TiO2), and is formed to include a c-TiO2 layer and an M-TiO2 layer. In this case, To fabricate a compact-TiO2 layer, titanium diisopropoxide bis(acetylacetonate) mixed with 1-butanol was spin-coated on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate (Pilkington, Japan) and then dried at 125° C. for 5 min. The TiO2 nanoparticle paste (GreatCell Solar Limited, AUS) was mixed in ethanol to fabricate a mesoporous-TiO2 layer, spin-coated, and then sintered at 500° C. for 1 h. The substrate was soaked in 20 mM TiCl4 solution at 90° C. for 15 min and rinsed with deionized (DI) water and ethanol before drying at 500° C. for 1 h.
The perovskite layer (MAPbI3) is configured to generate electrons and holes by receiving light. The perovskite layer (MAPbI3) may be formed by first preparing an active layer solution, and then spin-coating the electron transport layer (ETL) with the active layer solution, and then annealing. More specifically to prepare an active layer solution, PbI2 (TCI, Japan), MAI, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) were mixed to form the active layer solution. The mixed solution was spin-coated on the mesoporous-TiO2 layer and the substrate was annealed at 65° C. for 1 min and 100° C. for 10 min.
The hole transport layer (HTL) is easily adsorbed with the perovskite layer (MAPBI3) to increase the energy conversion efficiency through the maximum absorption of the light particle. In this case, to fabricate the hole transport layer, spiro-OMeTAD (Jilin, China), bis(trifluoromthane)sulfonimide lithium solution, 4-tert-butylpyridine, and chlorobenzene were mixed and spin-coated on the MAPbI3 layer.
The silver layer Ag is deposited on the hole transport layer HTL, and in this case, the silver is deposited on the hole transport layer HTL through thermal evaporation.
The conductive connector EC is configured to combine the perovskite solar cell PSC and the supercapacitor SC, and in the case of the exemplary embodiment, the conductive connector EC is made of a silver paste, and the silver paste as the same material as an upper electrode of the perovskite solar cell PSC allows holes to smoothly move to a common electrode from the upper electrode of the perovskite solar cell PSC. Such a conductive connector EC is thermally cured at a temperature of 70° C. for 10 minutes for combining the perovskite solar cell PSC and the supercapacitor SC.
The supercapacitor SC includes a first electrode layer AC1, an electrolyte layer IG, and a second electrode layer AC2.
The first electrode layer AC1 is configured to include carbon black (super P, TIMCAL) and poly vinylindene fluoride (PVdF, HSV900, Kynar). In this case, in the first electrode layer AC1, carbon black (super P, TIMCAL) and poly vinylindene fluoride (PVdF, HSV900, Kynar) are used with a mass ratio of 7:2:1, and when carbon black (super P, TIMCAL) and poly vinylindene fluoride (PVdF, HSV900, Kynar) are mixed, slurry is prepared by mixing carbon black (super P, TIMCAL) and poly vinylindene fluoride (PVdF, HSV900, Kynar) with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidine (NMP, 98%, Thermo Fisher), and the slurry prepared in this case is mixed via a homogenizer (AR-100, Thinky Mixer), and the mixed slurry is applied to an aluminum substrate, which is manufactured as an AC electrode having a thickness of 40 μm and a diameter of 10 mm. Such a first electrode layer AC1 is electrically connected to the perovskite solar cell by the conductive connector EC.
The electrolyte layer IG is made of ionogel electrolyte, and more specifically, is configured to include polyurethane acrylate (PUA) oligomer, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium bis (trifluoromethyl sulfonyl) imid (EMITFSI), and 2-hydroxy-2-methyl prophenon (HMPP).
In this case, imidazolium Bis (Trifluoromethyl Sulfonil) imide (EMITFSI) is an ion conductive medium, and the polyurethane acrylate (PUA) oligomer provides a matrix for free-standing film. In this case, the electrolyte layer (IG) is configured to include 15 wt % polyurethane acrylate (PUA) oligomer and 85 wt % 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl sulfonyl) imid (EMITFSI). The mixture for the electrolyte comprising this configuration is uniformly applied with a thickness of 50 μm to the teflon-coated glass, and then cured via the UV lamp (300J) for 60 seconds, and in this case, The entire process was performed in an Ar-filled glovebox. The all-solid-state SC for analyzing the SC performance was prepared with a CR2032 coin cell. The prepared AC electrode was attached to both sides of the electrolyte. In this case, a total thickness of the supercapacitor is 130 μm, and the whole process was conducted under Ar condition.
The second electrode layer AC2 is manufactured by the same configuration and the same manufacturing method as the first electrode layer AC1, and is connected to the first electrode layer AC1 in a chargeable/dischargeable state by the electrode layer IG, and configures a form of the supercapacitor.
Hereinafter, a test result value of testing characteristics of the photo-charging energy storage device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention described above will be described.
First,
In this case, the cross-sectional image of the perovskite solar cell PSC illustrated in
In the PSC manufactured by the configuration illustrated in
When X-ray diffraction (XRD) is performed for the coated perovskite layer (MAPbI3) in order to identify that the perovskite layer (MAPbI3) is formed, a peak is observed at 14.17°, 28.56°, and 31.85° corresponding to crystalline surfaces 110, 220, and 310, respectively as illustrated in
Increasing the charging current of perovskite solar cells has proven beneficial in reducing the charging time of SC. Based on these considerations, it is designed, optimized, and characterized the large-area PSC with an aperture area of 25.00 mm2. Although small-area PSC of 6.25 mm2 is ideal for high efficiency, large-area PSC of 25.00 mm2 can provide a larger photo-current, significantly shortening the charging time of SC. The large area PSC of 25.00 mm2 exhibited a JSC(short-circuit current density) of 21.56 mA cm−2, Voc of 1.02 V, FF(fill factor) of 66.33%, and PCE of 14.60%. The performance of the large-area PSC of 25.00 mm2 was comparable with that of the small-area PSC of 6.25 mm2, although the PCE of the large-area PSC of 25.00 mm2 dropped slightly mainly due to the decrease in JSC and FF. The decrease in JSC and FF can be attributed to the increase in recombination during the carrier transport and series resistance of the transparent conducting electrode with an increasing aperture area.
The relatively low intrinsic voltage of an individual solar cell, normally under 1 V, results in the low operation voltage of the photo-charging SC, which is unable to meet the voltage requirements to power even small electronic devices.
As a result, a second strategy to enhance the performance of the photo charging SC can involve connecting PSC in series to increase the voltage. As result, as illustrated in
Therefore, these results verify the homogeneity of individual PSC in a series-connected design, which is crucial to the performance of the series-connected PSC, because the voltage is the sum of those of the individual PSC, while the current is limited by the lowest current of the individual PSC.
Moreover, it was investigated the performance of PSC under light illumination of 0.1 sun with a solar simulator to verify whether an SC can be charged by a PSC even under low-illumination conditions, such as indoor lighting.
As shown in
On the other hand, further referring to
The PSC is made of ionogel as a structure illustrated
This wide electrochemical stability was attributed to the hydrogen bonds formed between EMITFSI and PUA. Symmetric type SC was fabricated with the AC electrode and ionogel electrolyte. Since the non-faradaic electric double layer (EDL) capacitance formation is affected by the specific surface area of electrode material, the AC is selected as the electrode due to its large surface area and low cost.
To investigate the electrochemical performance SC, EIS, CV, and GCD were conducted as shown in
The ion diffusion was confirmed by the relaxation time constant (τ) of SC, as shown
The following sequence of equations describes τ formula derived by the frequency dependent impedance behavior of a SC.
where Z(ω) and C(ω) are the frequency dependent impedance and capacitance, respectively, and w is the angular frequency defined as ω=2πf. The impedance Z(ω) can be written in the following complex form:
Z(ω)=Z′(ω)+jZ″(ω) Equation (2)
Moreover, C(ω) in Eq. (1) can be expanded as follows:
In Eq. (3), C′(ω) and C″(ω) are the real and imaginary parts of C(ω), respectively, while Z′(ω) and Z″(ω) are the real and imaginary parts of Z(ω), respectively. C′(ω) is the capacitance value obtained via the cyclic voltammograms and GCD profiles, while C″(ω) is associated with the energy loss in the charge storage process. Finally, τ is expressed as the reciprocal of the characteristic frequency (f0) as follows:
where f0 is the frequency at the maximum C″(o)). τ represented the predominant resistive and capacitive behaviors at frequencies above and below 1/f0, respectively. In other words, a smaller τ results in a higher percentage of useful capacitive energy. Despite the all-solid-state SC, the superior τ of 1.78 s was represented, which value supports the fact of fast ion diffusion. In addition, the ideal capacitor shows the phase angle of −90° in bode plot. Thus, as the phase angle approaches −90°, the device behaves more like a capacitor. The phase angle of proposed SC was −88.3°, as exhibited in
CV was performed at different scan rates, as displayed in
Here, further referring to
As illustrated in
where I is the applied current, m is the active mass of both electrodes, ΔV is the discharging voltage, and Δt is the discharging time. As shown in
The Ragone plot is a beneficial tool for viewing the combined specific energy and power densities. The specific energy density and power density were calculated from the GCD profile. The specific energy density E and the power density P are expressed as in Equation (7) below:
where i is the applied current density, t0 and tf are the initial and final discharging times. SC exhibited the maximum specific energy density (42.74 W h kg−1) with a specific power density of 1479.47W kg−1 at 0.1 A g−1.
Cycle stability is evaluated by using GCD at 1 A g−1 for 5000 cycles as illustrated in
Meanwhile, in order to identify whether the electric charge movement to the SC from the common electrode may freely occur, a density function theory (DFT) of an AC band structure for the first electrode layer AC1 and the second electrode layer AC2 is calculated. As a result, further referring to
The PCSD is comprised of 3 terminals: a FTO electrode in the PSC, the common electrode, and the AC electrode. Electric current can only flow when there is a closed path where an electron can move. Thus, for photo-charging, AC electrode and FTO electrode are combined. For analysis of the stored energy in SC, the common electrode and AC electrode is connected to the measuring equipment, as shown in
Meanwhile, as illustrated in
As a result, further referring to
In this case, since the charged SC is in a high-energy state, Gibbs free energy generates a thermodynamic propulsion for self discharging, and as a result, when the SC is maintained in an opened circuit state, voluntary voltage drop drops inevitably as illustrated in
Further,
In this regard, capacitance components related to charge transfer and charge recombination are observed. Due to defects such as trap sites in PSC, the capacitance component is fitted using constant phase elements (CPEct, CPErec). In dark state, the
Since the resistance of the PSC part is huge enough to ignore the resistance of the SC part under dark state, the impedance behavior of 4-PCSD appears similar to that of the PSC part.
The impedance behavior of PSC was completely changed under illumination. In
The impedance behavior of 4-PCSD appears similar to SC part because the generated charges from PSC move to SC. In other words, PSC serves as a stable power source for SC, and the 4-PCSD characteristics are determined dominantly by the SC under illumination.
The results that the 4-PCSD follows the SC behavior under illumination and the PSC behavior in the dark state are consistent with the aforementioned observation that the PSC acts as a load, resulting in continuously consumption of stored energy.
In this case,
The specific capacitance was 21.35 mF cm2 at 1 mA cm2 and 18.07 mF cm2 at 20 mA cm-2. The overall efficiency (ηoverall) is calculated by multiplying the conversion efficiency (ηconversion) and storage efficiency (ηstorage) as follows:
where ηconversion is the photoconversion efficiency and is calculated by solar cell characteristics under photo-illumination with Pin as the incident-light power density (1000 W m−2). ηstorage is obtained by dividing the stored energy of the SC (Ein) during the photo-charging process by the incident energy (Eout) from the light.
Further, ηoverall and ηstorage at various current densities are shown in
The ηoverall of the 4-PCSD were 13.17% at 1 mA cm−2 and 9.87% at 20 mA cm−2. This high ηoverall was attributed to the high current tolerance and high ηstorage (˜70%) of the SC, originating from fast ion diffusion. Compared with other research, our 4-PCSD have superior ηoverall (Table 6)
Remarkably high ηoverall was achieved even at 20 mA cm−2 due to the fast response of the PSC and SC, and as far, superior ηoverall at high current density has not been reported before. In addition, our 4-PCSD exhibited the highest specific energy density of 50.05 μWh cm−2 and power density of 1.295 mW cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2.
Here, further referring to
The cut-off voltages were set as 0.9, 1.8, 2.7, and 3.6 V, which are chargeable voltage using the PSC.
In this case, further referring to
In this case, the charging time increases linearly according to the number of photo-charging energy storage devices (PSC). The voltage profile with different discharging current density is depicted in
A low-illumination photo-charging test was conducted to further verify the excellent performance of the 4-PCSD, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
A smaller ohmic drop in voltage profile was observed under 0.1 sun illumination, implying higher specific capacitance and energy density. Thus, under 0.1 sun illumination, the enhanced ηstorage was observed (more than 81%) even at a high current density of 20 mA cm−2, as described in
Further referring
Further referring to
As illustrated in
Furthermore, 4-PCSD showed remarkable charging characteristics even in an indoor light. Because four PSCs are connected in series, 4-PCSD can charge 2 V using only indoor light, although the charging rate is slow. The photovoltage of the PSC in an indoor light is dropped by the interface defect of ETL/MAPbI3 interface because the interface trap density is more dominates the charge carrier generation. Thus, the maximum photo-charging voltage was achieved at 2 V. The cycle stability of photo-charging indoor condition and galvanostatic discharged with 0.4 mA cm−2 is described in
To confirm the charged energy, 4-PCSD was charged under AM 1.5 G illumination and was connected to blue LED. As shown in
As illustrated in
In summary, we fabricated portable 4-PCSD exhibiting the superior overall efficiency of 13.17% at 1 mA cm−2 and 9.87% at 20 mA cm−2 due to high storage efficiency of SC. Although individual PSC and SC may not the best performance as the single device, by integrating both devices, each unit exert synergy with the other, thereby the performance of integrated device was improved. For any EDLC integrated with PSC, higher discharging current densities up to 20 mA cm−2 have not been reported so far. Impedance behavior of 4-PCSD demonstrated that PSC works stable power support to the SC under light condition. 4-PCSD exhibited remarkable charging performances under various conditions, which originated from the fast responses of PSC and SC. Moreover, 4-PCSD showed 78.6% of overall efficiency after 100 cycles under 20 mA cm-2 charging/discharging
As described above, the present invention has been described by specified matters such as detailed components, and the like and limited exemplary embodiments and drawings, but the description is just provided to assist more overall understanding of the present invention and the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment and various modifications and changes can be made by those skilled in the art from such a disclosure.
Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should not be defined only by the described exemplary embodiments, and it should be appreciated that claims to be described below and all which are equivalent to the claims or equivalently modified to the claims are included in the scope of the spirit of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2022-0002470 | Jan 2022 | KR | national |
10-2022-0128483 | Oct 2022 | KR | national |