Efficient Passive Cooling for Photovoltaic Cells via Self-Hygroscopic Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Films

Xu Ran; Zhenyu Shi; An Zhang; Junhao Shen; Litao Sun; Xing Wu; Hengchang Bi

doi:10.1002/smm2.70015

Efficient Passive Cooling for Photovoltaic Cells via Self-Hygroscopic Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Films

Xu Ran
, Zhenyu Shi
, An Zhang
, Junhao Shen
, Litao Sun
, Xing Wu^*
, Hengchang Bi^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Chemistry

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

79 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a pivotal role in energy transformation processes, especially for sustainable energy systems. However, the conversion efficiency of the PV cells is adversely affected by increasing temperature, leading to a reduction in their overall performance. In this study, a self-hygroscopic polyvinyl alcohol/graphene (SPG) cooling film, comprising a graphene layer and a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel layer with lithium bromide (LiBr), is introduced to passively reduce the working temperature of the PV cells. The graphene layer, as a heat-conducting layer, can efficiently conduct heat from the heat source to the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel layer used as an evaporation cooling layer. In addition, the introduction of LiBr endows the PVA hydrogel with an excellent self-hygroscopic property. The SPG cooling film demonstrates an outstanding cooling performance under the synergistic effect of the graphene film and the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel. In the outdoor experiments, the SPG cooling film can reduce the temperature of the PV cells by 20.6°C and increase its average output power from 74 to 93 W/m², about a 25.7% increase. This cooling film demonstrates significant potential for enhancing cooling performance in electronic devices and could be widely used in the thermal management of PV cells. © 2025 The Author(s).

Original language	English
Article number	e70015
Number of pages	10
Journal	SmartMat
Volume	6
Issue number	3
Online published	6 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smm2.70015
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

Funding

This study is financially supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province (BE2023009), the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (2022NSCQ-MSX2366), and the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory of MEMS of Ministry of Education, Southeast University. This study is also being supported by Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Research Keywords

evaporation cooling
graphene films
hygroscopic hydrogels
photovoltaic cells
thermal conductivity

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access Output

10.1002/smm2.70015

305321720.pdfFinal Published version, 2.13 MBLicence: CC BY

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@article{549d626c99cc44c59f98bf3b10a84a81,

title = "Efficient Passive Cooling for Photovoltaic Cells via Self-Hygroscopic Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Films",

abstract = "Photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a pivotal role in energy transformation processes, especially for sustainable energy systems. However, the conversion efficiency of the PV cells is adversely affected by increasing temperature, leading to a reduction in their overall performance. In this study, a self-hygroscopic polyvinyl alcohol/graphene (SPG) cooling film, comprising a graphene layer and a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel layer with lithium bromide (LiBr), is introduced to passively reduce the working temperature of the PV cells. The graphene layer, as a heat-conducting layer, can efficiently conduct heat from the heat source to the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel layer used as an evaporation cooling layer. In addition, the introduction of LiBr endows the PVA hydrogel with an excellent self-hygroscopic property. The SPG cooling film demonstrates an outstanding cooling performance under the synergistic effect of the graphene film and the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel. In the outdoor experiments, the SPG cooling film can reduce the temperature of the PV cells by 20.6°C and increase its average output power from 74 to 93 W/m2, about a 25.7\% increase. This cooling film demonstrates significant potential for enhancing cooling performance in electronic devices and could be widely used in the thermal management of PV cells. {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s).",

keywords = "evaporation cooling, graphene films, hygroscopic hydrogels, photovoltaic cells, thermal conductivity",

author = "Xu Ran and Zhenyu Shi and An Zhang and Junhao Shen and Litao Sun and Xing Wu and Hengchang Bi",

year = "2025",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1002/smm2.70015",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

journal = "SmartMat",

issn = "2766-8525",

publisher = "John Wiley \& Sons",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Efficient Passive Cooling for Photovoltaic Cells via Self-Hygroscopic Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Films

AU - Ran, Xu

AU - Shi, Zhenyu

AU - Zhang, An

AU - Shen, Junhao

AU - Sun, Litao

AU - Wu, Xing

AU - Bi, Hengchang

PY - 2025/6

Y1 - 2025/6

N2 - Photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a pivotal role in energy transformation processes, especially for sustainable energy systems. However, the conversion efficiency of the PV cells is adversely affected by increasing temperature, leading to a reduction in their overall performance. In this study, a self-hygroscopic polyvinyl alcohol/graphene (SPG) cooling film, comprising a graphene layer and a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel layer with lithium bromide (LiBr), is introduced to passively reduce the working temperature of the PV cells. The graphene layer, as a heat-conducting layer, can efficiently conduct heat from the heat source to the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel layer used as an evaporation cooling layer. In addition, the introduction of LiBr endows the PVA hydrogel with an excellent self-hygroscopic property. The SPG cooling film demonstrates an outstanding cooling performance under the synergistic effect of the graphene film and the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel. In the outdoor experiments, the SPG cooling film can reduce the temperature of the PV cells by 20.6°C and increase its average output power from 74 to 93 W/m2, about a 25.7% increase. This cooling film demonstrates significant potential for enhancing cooling performance in electronic devices and could be widely used in the thermal management of PV cells. © 2025 The Author(s).

AB - Photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a pivotal role in energy transformation processes, especially for sustainable energy systems. However, the conversion efficiency of the PV cells is adversely affected by increasing temperature, leading to a reduction in their overall performance. In this study, a self-hygroscopic polyvinyl alcohol/graphene (SPG) cooling film, comprising a graphene layer and a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel layer with lithium bromide (LiBr), is introduced to passively reduce the working temperature of the PV cells. The graphene layer, as a heat-conducting layer, can efficiently conduct heat from the heat source to the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel layer used as an evaporation cooling layer. In addition, the introduction of LiBr endows the PVA hydrogel with an excellent self-hygroscopic property. The SPG cooling film demonstrates an outstanding cooling performance under the synergistic effect of the graphene film and the self-hygroscopic PVA hydrogel. In the outdoor experiments, the SPG cooling film can reduce the temperature of the PV cells by 20.6°C and increase its average output power from 74 to 93 W/m2, about a 25.7% increase. This cooling film demonstrates significant potential for enhancing cooling performance in electronic devices and could be widely used in the thermal management of PV cells. © 2025 The Author(s).

KW - evaporation cooling

KW - graphene films

KW - hygroscopic hydrogels

KW - photovoltaic cells

KW - thermal conductivity

UR - https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001518772400008

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105007624041

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105007624041&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1002/smm2.70015

DO - 10.1002/smm2.70015

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 2766-8525

VL - 6

JO - SmartMat

JF - SmartMat

IS - 3

M1 - e70015

ER -

Efficient Passive Cooling for Photovoltaic Cells via Self-Hygroscopic Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Films

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this