How iron carbenes store energy from sunlight — and why they aren’t better at it — ScienceDaily



In a solar cell, an iron carbene attaches to the semiconductor film on the surface of the cell with its iron atom sticking up. Sunlight hits the iron atom and liberates electrons, which flow into the carbene attachments. If they remain on those attachments long enough — 10 trillionths of a second or more — they can then move into the solar cell and boost its efficiency. In chemistry, the energy boost that photosensitizers provide helps drive chemical reactions, but requires even longer residence times for the electrons on the carbene attachments.



PULSE’s Kelly Gaffney said the long-term goal of this research is to get close to 100 percent of the electrons to stay on carbenes much longer, so the energy from light can be used to drive chemical reactions. To do that, scientists need to find design principles for tailoring iron carbene molecules to carry out particular jobs with maximum efficiency.

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Materials provided by DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Original written by Glennda Chui. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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