Applying Lessons from Leaf Anatomy and Array Structure to the Development of Solar Cells Exhibiting Enhanced Electricity Production

Abstract

Photosynthesis of plants is the natural method for making energy from sun light. Plants evolved to generate more energy even under shade in fixed area. From the feature of plants in urban environment, we applied botanical properties to photovoltaic systems, especially to dye-sensitized solar cells. Inside of leaves, the cuticle and epidermis are formed for protect leaves from various environmental threats and spreading light into mesophyll structures. In mesophyll structure, there are palisade and spongy cells which make energy by photosynthesis. To apply these feature for dye sensitized solar cells, we adapted new concepts of light-trapping layer imitated epidermis of leaves. The micro-patterned photoanodes also created for palisade-liked structure. And the plants are grown as plant crown, we arrayed dye-sensitized solar cells as three-dimensional sub-module. As the results, we obtain almost 50% enhancement of electricity production.