New York, Feb. 15 (SANA) A team of chemists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has developed a new material capable of capturing sunlight, storing it within chemical bonds and releasing it as heat on demand.
The material, a modified organic molecule called pyrimidone, represents the latest advancement in molecular solar thermal (MOST) energy storage.
In a paper published in the U.S. scientific journal Science, Associate Professor Grace Han and Han Nguyen, a doctoral student in the Han Group and the study’s lead author, highlighted a molecular solar thermal storage technique that differs from conventional solar panels. Instead of converting sunlight into electricity and storing it in batteries, the energy is retained directly within the molecular structure of the compound.
Experiments showed that the material can store energy at levels twice those of traditional lithium-ion batteries.
Co-author Benjamin Baker, a doctoral student in the Han Lab, explained: “With solar panels, you need an additional battery system to store the energy, but with molecular solar thermal energy storage, the material itself is able to store that energy from sunlight.”
The researchers said the discovery marks an important step toward more efficient solar energy utilization, opening the door to innovative and sustainable storage methods.
While the technology remains in its early stages, the results suggest strong potential for more effective solar energy storage in the future.
