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DysCrete
EXPERIMENTAL ENERGY PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

DYSCRETE SO
LAR POW
ER FROM CON
CRETE
DysCrete is an in
no
va
tive ap
p roach to the gen
er
a
tion of en
er
gy, based on the same un
der
l y
i ng prin
ci
p les as dye-sen
si
tized so
l ar cells (DYSC), from which it gains its name.
Like other cells based on DYSC tech
nol
o
gy, DysCrete us
es or
gan
i c dyes to ab
sorb light
and pro
d uce elec
tric
i
ty through elec
tro
chem
i
cal re
ac
tions. Anal
y
sis of this still nov
el
pro
cess re
veals a high de
gree of com
p at
i
b il
i
ty be
tween DYSC tech
nol
o
gy and the chem
istry and physics of con
crete, in
clud
i ng its ma
te
rial log
i c and pro
d uc
tion meth
ods. DYSC
cells are mod
eled on na
ture. Much like chloro
p hyll-bear
i ng plants, they ab
sorb light not
with semi
con
d uc
tor ma
te
rials, but with or
gan
i c dyes held in sus
p en
sion. In this sense,
the tech
nol
o
gy is an adap
ta
tion of the pho
to
syn
thet
i c pro
cess.

THE DYSCRETE CON

CEPT
The DysCrete pro
j ect be
gan with the idea of a con
crete block that would gen
er
ate elec
tric
i
ty when fruit juice was poured over it. Ini
tial at
tempts proved that ce
ment could
serve as the ba
sis for a tar
get
ed syn
th
e
sis of pho
tore
ac
tive par
ti
cles and build
i ng ma
te
rials. Promis
i ng new tech
nolo
gies and al
ter
na
tive pro
cess
es such as the DYSC cell call
for fur
ther de
vel
op
ment through di
rect ap
p li
ca
tion. The DYSC cell is one of the most ef
fi
cient new so
l ar-cell tech
nolo
gies, but most re
search
ers have fo
cused on the con
sid
er
able po
ten
tial of glass-based trans
l u
cent mo
d
ules. Un
til now, the pos
si
b il
i
ty of com
b in
ing DYSC cells with con
struc
tion ma
te
rials such as con
crete has been over
l ooked. The
main chal
l enge is to op
ti
mize the cells long-term sta
b il
i
ty. DysCrete us
es a spray-coat
ing method that can be per
formed in si
tu. The con
ven
tio
n
al en
cap
su
l a
tion pro
cess, in
which the fail
ure of a sin
gle com
p o
nent ren
d ers the en
tire cell use
l ess, is re
p laced by a
lay
er group
i ng sys
tem with a re
ne
w
able sand
wich struc
ture that of
fers ex
cep
tio
n
al ver
satil
i
ty in cell con
struc
tion.

HOW THE PRO

CESS WORKS
Tech
ni
cal
l y, the DysCrete cell is based on a sim
p le struc
ture of func
tio
n
al lay
ers. Th
ese
com
b ine to form a re
d ox re
ac
tion coat
i ng that gen
er
ates en
er
gy through an elec
tro
chem
i
cal pro
cess when ex
p osed to light. This coat
i ng can be cre
at
ed on con
crete sur
faces by sys
te
m
at
i
cal
l y mod
i
fy
i ng their phys
i
cal and chem
i
cal struc
ture while ap
p
l y
i ng
and in
te
grat
i ng spe
cif
i c sub
s
tances. The elec
tric
i
ty-gen
er
at
i ng ma
te
rial is refined
through a pro
cess of syn
th
e
sis and lay
er
i ng, a com
b i
na
tion of sin
ter
i ng and spray de
p o
-

si
tion that can eas
i
l y be in
te
grat
ed in
to the pro
d uc
tion of pre
fab
ri
cat
ed el
e
ments. By
ad
j ust
i ng the dye and elec
tro
l yte com
p o
nents, the lay
er sys
tem can be tuned to spe
cif
ic
wave
b ands of light, in
clud
i ng the very edges of the vis
i
b le spec
trum. One ma
j or ad
van
tage of dye-sen
si
tized con
crete is its rel
a
tive
l y low pro
d uc
tion cost, giv
i ng the sys
tem
great po
ten
tial as a low-cost en
er
gy source.
EN
ER
GY-GEN
ER
AT
ING CON
CRETE
DysCrete com
b ines the ad
van
tages of tech
no
l og
i
cal pho
to
syn
th
e
sis and con
crete. The
ba
sis of the sys
tem is con
crete, with its many pos
i
tive qual
i t
ies as a struc
tu
ral prod
uct
(fire re
sis
tance, high strength and dura
b il
i
ty, va
ri
e
ty of con
struc
tion meth
ods). The en
er
gy-gen
er
at
i ng func
tion is pro
d uced with free
l y avai
l
able com
p o
nents, with no ad
d i
tio
n
al
tox
i c emis
sions. The in
no
va
tive sys
tem of ma
te
rials is re
ne
w
able, large
l y re
cy
clable and
en
vi
ron
men
tal
l y friend
l y. Be
cause it can make use of the en
er
gy in dif
fuse light, its
struc
tu
ral ap
p li
ca
tions are vir
tu
al
l y un
l imit
ed com
p ared to con
ven
tio
n
al pho
to
vol
ta
ic
sys
tems, open
i ng up a world of pos
si
b il
i
ties in the field of struc
tu
ral
l y in
te
grat
ed pho
to
vol
taics. DysCrete is ide
al
l y suit
ed for man
u
fac
tur
i ng pre
fab
ri
cat
ed con
crete el
e
ments
for build
i ng con
struc
tion, for new types of build
i ng fa
cades, and for in
d oor and out
d oor
wall and floor sys
tems.

DURATION
08/01/1309/01/2015
WEBSITE
www.forschungsinitiative.de
RESEARCH & PROJECT FUNDING
Research Initiative Future Building
Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety

COOPERATION PARTNERS
FG Werkstoffe des Bauwesens und der Bauchemie, Prof. Middendorf