The accumulation of solar energy

The structure of the polymeric material

The accumulation of solar energy

 Researchers from mit have developed a new material that is a thin transparent polymeric film, capable of accumulating the solar energy it receives during the day, and release it later as heat as necessary. Due to the small thickness of this material can be applied to any difficult surface, including the surface of garments that will acquire the function of additional heating.

With the help of the new material is partly solved a well-known problem with solar energy is unavailable at night or in bad weather conditions. In most cases this problem is solved by converting solar energy into electrical energy and accumulation of electric energy in batteries. Inside the new material is also similar, only the sun light energy is not converted into electrical energy, and chemical, which may persist for an arbitrarily long time and at no additional cost can be converted into heat.

A key component of the material "of solar-thermal power" are molecules of azobenzene, which can be in one of two stable States, in "charged" and "discharged". The energy of photons of light excites the molecules of this substance and causes them to go in "loaded" state in which they can be arbitrarily long. After that, when exposed to a certain temperature or other factors, these molecules are returning to the "uncharged" state, giving their stored energy as heat.

The process of accumulation of energy

The accumulation of solar energy

"Material "of solar-thermal power" has a high transparency, which will allow you to use it as a means of de-icing windshields of cars and aircraft, where technical regulations are prohibited from using even a very thin heating elements," says Jeffrey Grossman (Jeffrey Grossman), Professor of mit, who heads the research team.

Transparent polymer film may be sandwiched between layers of glass, as is done in automotive glass. In addition, the energy stored by the molecules of the film, enough to heat the glass surface up to 10 degrees when the ambient temperature is at -20 degrees. Such heating will ensure the emergence of a thin layer of water between the glass and formed on its surface ice and to remove ice from the Windows without any difficulties. It should be noted that this possibility of using the new material are already interested in some car manufacturers, including the German company BMW.

In addition to conventional cars, the new material can provide greater efficiency of electric vehicles, which do not have to spend scarce energy from batteries to heat the glass to prevent them freezing.