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A nanophotonic solar thermophotovoltaic device

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Nanotechnology, January 2014
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
17 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
12 X users
patent
3 patents
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

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718 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
623 Mendeley
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Title
A nanophotonic solar thermophotovoltaic device
Published in
Nature Nanotechnology, January 2014
DOI 10.1038/nnano.2013.286
Pubmed ID
Authors

Andrej Lenert, David M. Bierman, Youngsuk Nam, Walker R. Chan, Ivan Celanović, Marin Soljačić, Evelyn N. Wang

Abstract

The most common approaches to generating power from sunlight are either photovoltaic, in which sunlight directly excites electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor, or solar-thermal, in which sunlight drives a mechanical heat engine. Photovoltaic power generation is intermittent and typically only exploits a portion of the solar spectrum efficiently, whereas the intrinsic irreversibilities of small heat engines make the solar-thermal approach best suited for utility-scale power plants. There is, therefore, an increasing need for hybrid technologies for solar power generation. By converting sunlight into thermal emission tuned to energies directly above the photovoltaic bandgap using a hot absorber-emitter, solar thermophotovoltaics promise to leverage the benefits of both approaches: high efficiency, by harnessing the entire solar spectrum; scalability and compactness, because of their solid-state nature; and dispatchablility, owing to the ability to store energy using thermal or chemical means. However, efficient collection of sunlight in the absorber and spectral control in the emitter are particularly challenging at high operating temperatures. This drawback has limited previous experimental demonstrations of this approach to conversion efficiencies around or below 1% (refs 9, 10, 11). Here, we report on a full solar thermophotovoltaic device, which, thanks to the nanophotonic properties of the absorber-emitter surface, reaches experimental efficiencies of 3.2%. The device integrates a multiwalled carbon nanotube absorber and a one-dimensional Si/SiO2 photonic-crystal emitter on the same substrate, with the absorber-emitter areas optimized to tune the energy balance of the device. Our device is planar and compact and could become a viable option for high-performance solar thermophotovoltaic energy conversion.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 623 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 16 3%
Germany 3 <1%
Japan 2 <1%
Malaysia 1 <1%
China 1 <1%
Italy 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Unknown 597 96%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 168 27%
Researcher 94 15%
Student > Master 70 11%
Student > Bachelor 42 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 32 5%
Other 101 16%
Unknown 116 19%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Engineering 203 33%
Physics and Astronomy 101 16%
Materials Science 78 13%
Chemistry 37 6%
Energy 31 5%
Other 29 5%
Unknown 144 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 149. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 December 2023.
All research outputs
#277,903
of 25,507,011 outputs
Outputs from Nature Nanotechnology
#205
of 3,753 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,579
of 321,654 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Nanotechnology
#4
of 53 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,507,011 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,753 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 321,654 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 53 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.