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The team has created an artificial photosynthesis device called the Photoelectrochemical and Voltaic Hybrid Cell (HPEV), which transforms sunlight and water into two types of energy: hydrogen and electricity. The existing artificial photosynthesis devices can only use small percentages of sunlight that hits them. As lead author of the study, Gideon Segev said, "It's like driving a car in first gear. It's an energy that you could reap, but because silicon does not act at its peak power point, most of the electrons excited in silicon have nowhere to go, so they lose their energy before be used to do useful work. "
The solution behind the new device is simply to let out these electrons. The researchers added a second electrical contact to the back of the silicon component of the device, which divides the current produced by the energy of sunlight and allows some of the current to divide the light. Water in hydrogen and oxygen, and partly to electricity. . Previous artificial photosynthetic devices have an efficiency of 6.8%. According to Segev, the new design has a combined efficiency of 20.2%.
Now that the team has the basics, she says she plans to continue to improve the device and study the real applications of it. Of course, the design does not pose the question, why not just store the extra energy in a battery instead of producing hydrogen? Batteries are expensive, is an answer, but fuel cells are not cheap either. Be that as it may, hydrogen will play an important role in the future energy mix of the world. Also, any measure to improve the efficiency of its harvests is good news for later.
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