Wood has served as the main source of energy throughout most of the history of mankind. In the future, wood-based materials could serve again as building blocks for advanced energy devices, including solar cells. Notably, the current aim in emerging photovoltaic technologies is on cost and reduction of embedded energy (energy payback time). Thus, investigation of affordable and environmentally friendly materials for solar applications is a hot topic. Most recently, investigation of wood and other plant-based materials has taken off in the field of photovoltaics. These bio-based materials can serve in active (photoactive material, catalyst) as well as passive (substrate, electrolyte gelators, insulator layer) functions in the solar device. The important question is where most advantage can be gained and what are the most promising areas of research, considering the implementation of bio-based materials in solar cells. This contribution showcases the recent developments in the field regarding the different components. While replacement of materials is interesting itself, wood-based materials can even exceed the performance of conventional counterparts. For instance, wood and nanocellulose substrates have shown to give superior optical performance compared to glass and plastic substrates while increasing photocurrent production by 18 %. Furthermore, compared to conventional approaches, our recent results show how the utilization of cellulose structures as electrolyte membranes has allowed omitting significant efficiency losses (up to 35 %) in the upscaling of the device. Besides relieving environmental impact of the components, the utilization of wood-based materials can play a major role in the recovery of rare and expensive metals from used devices.

Wood for energy 2.0

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.