A New Approach for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

“These materials hold extreme promise for solar energy conversion applications,” says Ganesh Balasubramanian, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Lehigh University’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. “One can potentially design them as solar thermoelectric materials that convert thermal energy from the sun to usable electric power.”

Balasubramanian, working with postdoctoral student Eric Osei-Agyemang and undergraduate Challen Enninful Adu, have for the first time, revealed first-hand knowledge about the fundamental energy carrier properties of chalcogenide perovskite CaZrSe3. They have published their findings in NPJ Computational Materials in an article called “Ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of chalcogenide perovskite CaZrSe3 contributes to high thermoelectric figure of merit.” This work compliments a recent article by the same team published in Advanced Theory and Simulations called “Doping and Anisotropy–Dependent Electronic Transport in Chalcogenide Perovskite CaZrSe3 for High Thermoelectric Efficiency.”

“Together they provide a holistic look at the transport properties of these materials,” says Balasubramanian. “They also demonstrate that chalcogenide perovskite CaZrSe3 can potentially be used for waste heat recovery or solar energy conversion to electricity.”

To arrive at their results, the team performed quantum chemical calculations examining the electronic and lattice properties of these materials to derive useful material transport information.

The news that energy transport through advanced materials such as chalcogenides can be tuned by nano structuring should be welcomed by other researchers in the field, says Balasubramanian, bringing scientists closer to applying these techniques to achieve a solar energy production method that is cheaper, more efficient and less toxic.