Power up: breakthrough promises solar charging for AFVs

The research, published in Nature Communications, is claimed to hold promise for cleaner electric transportation and home power sources. Charging electric cars by solar cell could, for example, be the answer for those concerned about a lack of recharging posts, or the source of the electricity delivered by the post.

“We found the right match between the solar cell and battery,” said Liming Dai, the Kent Hale Smith Professor of macromolecular science and engineering and leader of the research. “Others have used polymer solar cells to charge lithium batteries, but not with this efficiency.”

The researchers say their overall photoelectric conversion and storage outperformed all other reported couplings of a photo-charging component with lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries or supercapacitors.

Perovskite solar cells have active materials with a crystalline structure identical to the mineral perovskite and are considered a promising new design for capturing solar energy. Compared to silicon-based cells, they convert a broader spectrum of sunlight into electricity.