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Scientists have found a new way to ‘bottle’ the sun using a liquid molecule that works like a battery.
One of the biggest problems with solar power is that it only works when the sun is shining. At night or on cloudy days, solar panels stop producing energy. Storing that energy usually requires large lithium-ion batteries or complex electrical systems.
In a study by the University of California, Santa Barbara, Associate Professor Grace Han and her team describe a new material that captures sunlight and stores it in chemical bonds. The energy can later be released as heat whenever it’s needed. This technology is part of a system called Molecular Solar Thermal (MOST) energy storage.
The key to the discovery is a modified organic molecule known as pyrimidone. Interestingly, its structure is similar to a building block of DNA. In nature, certain DNA components can change their structure when exposed to UV light and then switch back again.
By creating a synthetic version of this structure, the researchers designed a molecule that can store solar energy and release it repeatedly without breaking down. They also worked with Ken Houk, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who used computer modeling to understand how the molecule stores energy and stays stable for years without losing its charge.
“The concept is reusable and recyclable,” said Han Nguyen, a doctoral student in the Han Group and the paper’s lead author.
“Think of photochromic sunglasses. When you’re inside, they’re just clear lenses. You walk out into the sun, and they darken on their own. Come back inside, and the lenses become clear again,” Nguyen continued. “That kind of reversible change is what we’re interested in. Only instead of changing color, we want to use the same idea to store energy, release it when we need it, and then reuse the material over and over.”
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