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Promoting Energy Efficiency via a Self‐Adaptive Evaporative Cooling Hydrogel
Author(s) -
Pu Shirui,
Fu Jia,
Liao Yutian,
Ge Lurong,
Zhou Yihao,
Zhang Songlin,
Zhao Shenlong,
Liu Xiaowei,
Hu Xuejiao,
Liu Kang,
Chen Jun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201907307
Subject(s) - materials science , silicon , semiconductor , energy conversion efficiency , optoelectronics , solar energy , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , electrical engineering , engineering
Abstract High temperature brings adverse impacts on the energy efficiency, and even destroys a semiconductor device. Here, a novel and cost‐effective strategy is proposed to boost the energy efficiency of semiconductor devices by using the self‐adaptive evaporative cooling of a lithium‐ and bromine‐enriched polyacrylamide hydrogel. Water inside the hydrogel can quickly evaporate to dissipate the waste heat generated by the nugatory carrier transport in the P‐N junction. In dormancy, the hydrogel harvests water molecules from the surrounding air to regenerate itself. The hydrogel is demonstrated to low down the operating temperature of a commercial polycrystalline silicon solar cell by 17 °C under one sun condition and enhances its efficiency from 14.5% to 15.5%. It is also capable of increasing the maximum power of a simulated chip by 45% at a fixed operating temperature. The hydrogel is expected to be widely adopted in current semiconductor industry to improve its energy efficiency.