Abstract
The Sun's signicant resource potential provides a solution for the world's
increasing energy demand in a sustainable and responsible manner. However,
the intrinsic property of the on-o cycles of the solar irradiation, i.e. daynight,
sunny-cloudy, and summer-winter, constitutes a signicant challenge
for the utilization of solar energy. An eective technology for storing the
solar energy is required. This thesis focuses on solar thermal energy storage
in molecules, since it oers a very compact and eective storage method. The
rst chapter after the introduction of the thesis, chapter two, introduces the
fundamental properties of the molecule, i.e. the electronic behaviour of the
molecule in dierent environments, which is a key property for investigations
of solar energy storage. The main focus of the research is on the electron
transport in the Coulomb blockade regime.
The third chapter goes into the challenge of storing solar thermal energy.
A theoretical model describing both the macroscopic and the microscopic
parameters of a hybrid solar thermal system consisting of a solar water heating
system and a molecular solar thermal system (MOST) for energy storage
is presented. The model elucidates how much stored energy dierent types
of molecular classes can be expected to produce in a realistic system setup.
The photochromic system of dihydroazulene (DHA)/ vinylheptafulvene
(VHF) is of particular interest.
The DHA/VHF system is found to be a very promising molecular system
for solar thermal energy storage, already in its parent form. DHA absorbs
near solar ux, the spectra of the two photoisomers do not overlap signi-
cantly, and the photoreaction occurs with high quantum yield. By careful
chemical design, the properties of the DHA/VHF system can be tuned to be
more favourable with respect to thermal energy storage. E.g. the inclusion
of dierent substituents to the various positions of DHA/VHF is found to
increase the storage capacity of the system, combining two photoswitches
into one new multimode photoswitch enables stepwise energy release, and
nally the possibility of controlling/triggering the photoswitch with the use
of an applied voltage, when light is absent. Thus enabling the control of the
thermal energy release.
This thesis elucidates the great potential of solar thermal energy storage
in molecules by careful chemical design of the photochromic system.
increasing energy demand in a sustainable and responsible manner. However,
the intrinsic property of the on-o cycles of the solar irradiation, i.e. daynight,
sunny-cloudy, and summer-winter, constitutes a signicant challenge
for the utilization of solar energy. An eective technology for storing the
solar energy is required. This thesis focuses on solar thermal energy storage
in molecules, since it oers a very compact and eective storage method. The
rst chapter after the introduction of the thesis, chapter two, introduces the
fundamental properties of the molecule, i.e. the electronic behaviour of the
molecule in dierent environments, which is a key property for investigations
of solar energy storage. The main focus of the research is on the electron
transport in the Coulomb blockade regime.
The third chapter goes into the challenge of storing solar thermal energy.
A theoretical model describing both the macroscopic and the microscopic
parameters of a hybrid solar thermal system consisting of a solar water heating
system and a molecular solar thermal system (MOST) for energy storage
is presented. The model elucidates how much stored energy dierent types
of molecular classes can be expected to produce in a realistic system setup.
The photochromic system of dihydroazulene (DHA)/ vinylheptafulvene
(VHF) is of particular interest.
The DHA/VHF system is found to be a very promising molecular system
for solar thermal energy storage, already in its parent form. DHA absorbs
near solar ux, the spectra of the two photoisomers do not overlap signi-
cantly, and the photoreaction occurs with high quantum yield. By careful
chemical design, the properties of the DHA/VHF system can be tuned to be
more favourable with respect to thermal energy storage. E.g. the inclusion
of dierent substituents to the various positions of DHA/VHF is found to
increase the storage capacity of the system, combining two photoswitches
into one new multimode photoswitch enables stepwise energy release, and
nally the possibility of controlling/triggering the photoswitch with the use
of an applied voltage, when light is absent. Thus enabling the control of the
thermal energy release.
This thesis elucidates the great potential of solar thermal energy storage
in molecules by careful chemical design of the photochromic system.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|
| Forlag | Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen |
|---|---|
| Status | Udgivet - 2017 |