Polarizing Photovoltaic Device and its Application in Liquid Crystal Displays and Tandem Solar Cells

UCLA researchers have developed a new organic photovoltaic polymer for the polarizer in a liquid crystal display (LCD) enabling the polarizer to generate energy thereby reducing the power consumption of the LCD module. The ubiquitous LCD screen is energy inefficient because most of the photons generated by the backlight unit are lost to the polarizing layers (75%). For instance, when a black color is displayed by the LCD, the backlight is still fully on thereby wasting energy that could otherwise be conserved or recycled. The power consumption of the backlight units takes up 80~90% of the total power consumption in LCD modules.      

 

Researchers at UCLA have developed an energy recycling technology called polarizing organic photovoltaics (ZOPVs), which can boost the function of the LCD by working simultaneously as a polarizer, a photovoltaic device, and an ambient light or sunlight photovoltaic panel. Since the polarizers are the biggest energy-loss components, turning the polarizers into energy-generating photovoltaic units recovers the energy from the photons which would be otherwise lost. Compared with their silicon or other inorganic or organic-inorganic hybrid counterparts, a unique advantage of the organic conjugated materials is that the molecular chains can be easily reoriented.     

 

 

Energy recovery in LCD displays of handheld devices

Embedded solar cells in display screens

 

 

Longer battery life due to more recovery of lost photons

Solar cells invisibly embedded in display screen

 

 

Yang, Yang