Solar spectra and constants for photoelectrochemistry

With functions for calculating photon flux, current density, and solar-to-hydrogen efficiency based on either the ASTM G173-03 reference spectrum (AM1.5G) or on the black-body radiation (Planck theory), for relevant wavelength ranges.

Install this package

To use this package, install it from this repo:

install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("solarchemist/photoec")

If you encounter bugs or have questions please open an issue.

Develop this package

Check out the source code from this repo:

git clone https://github.com/solarchemist/photoec.git

I suggest the following package rebuild procedure (in RStudio IDE):

• Run devtools::check() (in the console or via the Build pane). Should complete with one note about undefined global functions or variables: label but no warnings nor errors:

── R CMD check results ───────────────────────────────── photoec 0.4.2.9000 ────
Duration: 17.3s

❯ checking R code for possible problems ... NOTE
  cumflux: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  currentdensity: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  eV2nm: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  energy2wavelength: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  energy2wavenum: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  flux: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  nm2eV: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  sunlight.ASTM: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  sunlight.Planck: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  wavelength2energy: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  wavenum2energy: no visible binding for global variable ‘label’
  Undefined global functions or variables:
    label

0 errors ✔ | 0 warnings ✔ | 1 note ✖

• Run devtools::build_vignettes() in the console. This recompiles the vignettes and populates the doc/ directory, and should produce one warning about the vignette title being different from the package title (safe to ignore).
• Manually remove the line doc from .gitignore (the build step keeps adding it).

Contributions are welcome, no matter whether code, bug reports or suggestions!

Read the vignettes

• The properties of the black body spectrum.
• An introduction to the G173-03 reference solar spectra.
• Am introduction to the air mass concept as applied towards solar energy.
• How to update the datasets in this package. This package includes two datasets: solarconstants a dataframe of some solar constants, and ASTMG173 the ASTM G173-03 reference solar spectra.

Citing this package

To cite photoec in publications use:

Taha Ahmed (2023). The photoec package: solar spectra and constants for photoelectrochemistry. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8034780.

Or see the CITATION.cff (citation file format) file in this repo or in the sidebar. Please note that the DOI above always resolves to the latest release of this package. If you want to explicitly cite a particular version, please use the corresponding DOI (listed on the Zenodo page).

Suggested future work

Consider scrapping our own unit converters in favour of units.

Links and notes

• https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/ChemPhys.html