Temperature regulation of concentrating photovoltaic window using argon gas and polymer dispersed liquid crystal films

Abstract

Low concentrating photovoltaic (LCPV) system has been studied extensively, which showed excellent potential for the building integration application. However, such a system suffers from higher operating temperatures due to the concentrated light exposed into the solar cell. In this work, two different methods have been used to regulate the operating temperature of the solar cell without the interference of any other external mechanism. Two concepts were used to study the operating temperature of the solar cells are: i) use of Argon gas within the concentrator element, ii) incorporation of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal films (PDLC) on top of the module. In both cases, the power was improved by 37 mW to 47 mW when temperature was reduced by 10°C and 4°C for the Argon gasfilled module and PDLC integrated module, respectively. In addition, the temperature effect of the PDLC integrated module showed a unique nature of reduction of the short circuit current due to the orientation of the liquid crystal particle, which increased at a higher temperature. The current study, therefore, shows the greater potential of improving the operating efficiency and reduction of solar cell temperature, without the need for additional pumping power such as needed for photovoltaic thermal application.

Simulation study for a switchable adaptive polymer dispersed liquid crystal smart window for two climate zones (Riyadh and London)

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Novel Multi-Time Scale Deep Learning Algorithm for Solar Irradiance Forecasting

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Mesomorphic Behaviour and DFT Insight of Arylidene Schiff Base Liquid Crystals and Their Pyridine Impact Investigation

“…Liquid crystals (LCs) are an attractive class of soft matter with properties that fall somewhere between liquids and solid crystals [1][2][3]. They have gained a huge amount of attention due to their very promising applications in various technological fields such as organic field effect transistors (OFETs) [4], Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) microlense [5], liquid crystal elastomers [6], sunlight-driven polymer actuators [7], photovoltaics [8], biosensors [9][10][11] and telecommunications [12]. The design and development of new low cost liquid crystalline materials with a long mesophase temperature range and high thermal stability will always be a challenge, especially for thermotropic LCs, due to their extensive and potential applications in various fields.…”