They haven't been developed yet, but I find the research into them intriguing:
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-chemists-technology-solar-energy-storage.html
Note sure what to make of this though. I wonder, exactly how feasible is this really? -I am concerned that, if it is to double as a battery, I would imagine its potential energy density and storage capacity to be pretty poor. So I assume this is really just about improving its energy efficiency?
But, if it works and is developed, this could be good.
But I am not encouraged by what I personally see as the dubious statement in that link; "Biology does a very good job of creating energy from sunlight,...."Plants do this through photosynthesis with extremely high efficiency." -extremely "high" efficiency!? -I certainly wouldn't say so! In formal higher education courses, I have studied photosynthesis and, for most land plants, the energy efficiency in optimal conditions is at most just ~11% energy efficient (and much less in more realistic real-life conditions! ), which I personally wouldn't say is impressive by any stretch of the imagination, and some modern solar panels already easily beat that energy efficiency level (I have heard of at least one with 22% energy efficiency; but I am probably way out of date on this).
Originally posted by humyA lot of these kind of research programs look promising at first then they run into trouble making a real device or they find out they need say, diamond like coatings (expensive) in order to passivate the parts or some other kind of block to industrialization.
They haven't been developed yet, but I find the research into them intriguing:
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-chemists-technology-solar-energy-storage.html
Note sure what to make of this though. I wonder, exactly how feasible is this really? -I am concerned that, if it is to double as a battery, I would imagine its potential energy density and storage capac ...[text shortened]... ve heard of at least one with 22% energy efficiency; but I am probably way out of date on this).