Changing Colours in Light for New Energy Applications
In a Nature Photonics article released today, ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science Chief Investigator, Professor Timothy Schmidt – with colleagues at UTS Sydney, Columbia University, and South Korean research institutes KRICT and Sungkyunkwan University – outlines the future pathways and likely challenges for the emergence of hybrid upconversion systems.
Traditionally, there have been two distinct upconversion camps: The organic dye camp and the inorganic ion camp. As these two camps begin to merge and bring about hybrid upconversion systems it is predicted that together, the new hybrid model will outperform either individual approach.
There are many applications for technologies that can stream high energy particles of light from lower energy particles. By using upconversion techniques for gluing particles of light together, that use organic molecules or rare earth ions, scientists can develop a wide range of novel applications for research areas such as background-free biosensing, microscopy, deep-tissue imaging, light-triggered nanomedicine, optogenetics, full-colour displays, anti-counterfeiting security inks, solar energy harvesting and photocatalysis.
“These developments in upconversion technology are very exciting and open up a range of possibilities for researchers in this area,” said Professor Schmidt.
Exciton Science Director, Professor Paul Mulvaney, said that "Upconversion is a very counter-intuitive process and we are particularly excited about the potential to harness near-infrared light in photovoltaics. This could allow much higher solar energy conversion efficiencies as well as a means to lower the impact of solar heating in buildings.”
Very exciting times indeed!
Read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-019-0528-x
