Researchers develop battery capable of harvesting energy from indoor lights

By Park Sae-jin Posted : May 21, 2020, 14:34 Updated : May 21, 2020, 14:34

[Courtesy of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology]

SEOUL -- A state research institute has developed a photo-rechargeable battery capable of harvesting energy from indoor lights to power small internet of things (IoT) devices.

Photo-rechargeable batteries can collect energy from the smallest amount of light inside a building. However, the batteries react very sensitively to the changes made to the light output, making them unstable. Because light-sensitive batteries use capacitors to house electricity, they are not ideal for powering electronic devices.

The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) said in a statement on Thursday that its research team led by professor Kwon Tae-hyuk has developed a dye-sensitive photo-rechargeable battery (DSPB) that has the efficiency of 11.5 percent under the dim light condition.

It's hard to connect conventional DSPBs, which normally use capacitors, to secondary batteries because of the different energy levels between the positive and negative electrodes. Kwon's team solved the problem by using two different thermodynamically-favorable materials. Mediators, which are chemical compounds, act as electron shuttles between the oxidizing enzyme and target compounds, made of iodine and copper compounds, respectively, to match the energy levels between electrodes.

The term "thermodynamically favorable" means spontaneous or that the reaction does not require energy in order to happen, according to Laurence Lavelle, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Kwon said the new photo-rechargeable battery could open a new way for researchers to study the method of using different kinds of light sources as energy. Six DSPBs were directly connected to harvest energy from indoor lights for 10 minutes and power an IoT device. Kwon's research was published on the May 2020 issue of Energy & Environmental Science, a peer-reviewed journal.
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