New Molecule To Store Solar Energy In Its Chemical Bond

Scientists develop molecule to store solar energy

A molecule was developed by the scientists at Linköping University that absorbs energy from sunlight and stores it in chemical bonds – capturing solar energy effectively and storing it for later use is the potential ingrained use of the molecule. The outcomes of the study have been released in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Sun provides many times more energy to Earth than human beings can use. Solar energy facilities absorb the energy from the sun, however, one of the difficulties of solar energy is to store it successfully, so that it can be used later without the presence of sunlight – the energy is readily available. This idea led researchers to check out the likelihood of using a new molecule to capture as well as store the solar energy.

Bo Durbeej, leader of the study and professor at Linköping University said that the molecules can take 2 various forms. The parent form that can absorb energy from sunlight and the other form has altered parent form structure and becomes to be a lot more energy-rich while being stable, which makes it feasible to effectively store the solar energy in the

This molecule comes under a group referred to as molecular photoswitches, available as isomers (two different forms). There are different properties for these 2 forms, the difference in the energy content, which is the varied properties in the case of the molecule developed by LiU scientists. Light energy affects the photoswitches’ chemical structures, suggesting that, by illuminating a photoswitch the structure and hence the properties can be altered. Molecular electronics is one of the possible fields of applications for photoswitches, in molecular electronics, both the molecule forms have varied electrical conductivities.

It prevails in research that first the experiments are carried out and then theoretical work validates the speculative results. However, in this experiment, the process was reversed, the research group carried out calculations and simulations of chain reactions, involving innovative computer simulations, that were executed on supercomputers. As per the calculations, the developed molecule would undergo the chemical reaction they called for. Additionally, it would certainly happen incredibly quickly, within 200 femtoseconds. The co-workers of the research team at the Research Centre for Natural Sciences were then able to develop the molecule, as well as carry out experiments that validated the predicted results.

The scientists have tried to make the energy difference between the two isomers as large as possible to store large amounts of solar energy in the molecule. The stability of the parent form of their molecule is extremely high, and there are 3 rings in the basic molecule, each of which is stable (a characteristic in organic chemistry indicated by stating that the molecule is aromatic). But the aromaticity is lost, such that the molecule ends up being a lot more energy-rich when it absorbs light. According to the scientist, a significant possibility in the field of molecular photoswitches for the concept of changing between aromatic and non-aromatic states of a molecule.

Bo Durbeej claims that in a condition where a molecule has high energy is when most of the chemical reactions begin and consequently pass to one with low energy, However, in this case, it was done the vise versa – a molecule that has low energy becomes a molecule with high energy. It would be anticipated to be tough, however, they have shown that it is possible for such reactions to occur quickly and effectively.

In further studies, the scientists will analyze, how the energy-rich form of the molecule releases the stored energy.

Source

Author: Sruthi S