Science Daily February 24, 2023 Halide perovskites show ubiquitous presences in growing fields at both fundamental and applied levels. Discovery, investigation, and application of innovative perovskites are heavily dependent on the synthetic methodology in terms of time-/yield-/effort-/energy- efficiency. Conventional wet chemistry method provides the easiness for growing thin film samples but represents as an inefficient way for bulk crystal synthesis. A team of researchers in the US (Pennsylvania State University, U.S. Army CCDCAMC) has developed a universal solid state-based route for synthesizing high-quality perovskites by means of simultaneously applying both electric and mechanical stress fields during the synthesis, i.e., the […]
Tag Archives: Solar cells
Paper-thin solar cell can turn any surface into a power source (w/video)
Nanowerk December 10, 2022 To date, demonstrations of ultra-thin photovoltaics have been limited to small-scale devices, often prepared on glass carrier substrates with only a few layers solution-processed. Researchers at MIT have demonstrated large-area, ultra-thin organic photovoltaic (PV) modules produced with scalable solution-based printing processes for all layers. They were transferred onto lightweight and high-strength composite fabrics, resulting in durable fabric-PV systems ∼50 microns thin, weighing under 1 gram over the module are, and having a specific power of 370 W kg−1. Integration of the ultra-thin modules onto composite fabrics lends mechanical resilience to allow the fabric-PV systems to maintain […]
Nanoparticles increase light scattering, boost solar cell performance
Phys.org August 3, 2022 An international team of researchers (USA – Pennsylvania State University, Australia, Italy) has demonstrated that adding any nanomaterial to solar material boosts its efficiency because of the enhanced light scattering as confirmed by theoretical calculations. Adding the nanoparticles boosted the efficiency of perovskite solar cells by 1% in the study. Redistribution of the optical field and consequently a homogenization of the optical field can lead to a reduced photocarrier loss and provide a noticeable photocurrent enhancement (ca. 7%), which explains the general photocurrent improvement in solar cells with nanomaterials…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Photovoltaics: Fully scalable all-perovskite tandem solar modules
Science Daily July 14, 2022 Researchers in Germany have developed a prototype for fully scalable all-perovskite tandem solar modules which have an efficiency of up to 19.1 percent with an aperture area of 12.25 square centimeters. The improved efficiency was realized with optimized light paths, high-throughput laser scribing, and the use of established industrial coating methods. Perovskite solar cells with a tunable band gap are ideal tandem partners for solar cells made of other materials and for all-perovskite tandem solar cells. They were able to scale up individual perovskite cells with an efficiency of up to 23.5 percent .They feature […]
N-type conductive tin sulfide thin films: Towards environmentally friendly solar cells
Science Daily December 13, 2021 An international team of researchers (Japan, USA – National Renewable Energy Laboratory) has fabricated n-type conductive SnS thin films by impurity doping. Conventional SnS thin films are usually p-type conductive. Thus, SnS thin-film solar cells have been fabricated using a pn heterojunction with p-type SnS thin film and other n-type semiconductor thin films, such as CdS. However, the conversion efficiency of such heterojunction devices is approximately 5%. The SnS thin-film solar cells employing a pn homojunction, which uses SnS thin films for both p-type and n-type layers, is expected to exhibit higher conversion efficiency. Utilizing […]
Researchers create nanoparticle paste to make perovskite solar cells more efficient
Nanowerk September 10, 2021 Large-scale and low-cost approaches for creating functional nanostructures are still not developed. An international team of researchers (Russia, Italy) has developed a method to create mesoporous electron transport layer based on optically resonant silicon nanoparticles incorporated into TiO paste to be applied for perovskite (MAPbI) solar cell. The inclusion of Mie-resonant silicon nanoparticles helps to improve light absorption by a perovskite layer without reduction of the active material. The management of Si nanoantennas concentration provides a power conversion efficiency higher than 21% by increasing all main device parameters. The new silicon nanoparticles provide physical understanding on […]
Researchers make breakthrough in solar cell materials
Phys.org March 12, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – Clemson University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, China) observed the ultrafast dynamics of trapped carriers in organic methyl ammonium lead halide perovskite thin films by ultrafast photocurrent spectroscopy. Upon ultrafast laser excitation, trapped carriers followed a phonon assisted tunneling mechanism and a hopping transport mechanism along ultra-shallow to shallow trap states ranging from 1.72–11.51 millielectronvolts. They validated the transport mechanisms by highlighting trap state dynamics, including trapping rates, de-trapping rates and trap properties, such as trap density, trap levels, and capture-cross sections. The work establishes a foundation […]
On the road to invisible solar panels: How tomorrow’s windows will generate electricity
EurekAlert January 5, 2021 The transparent photovoltaic cell (TPC) is an invisible solar cell bypassing the visible range light while absorbing harmful UV light to generate electric power. An international team of researchers (South Korea, India, Viet Nam) fabricated the TPC using TiO2 as the n-type semiconductor to serve as the UV light absorber. Above TiO2 layer, p-type NiO is deposited for a high transmittance (>57%) for the visible light. The two different metal-oxide species are employed to make a transparent heterojunction. TPC is transparent to human eyes and which would serve as an invisible power source for the window […]
Daylight damage to photovoltaics
Science Daily December 2, 2019 The cumulative damage from the sun tends to erode efficiency of a new class of solar cells that utilizes layers of carbon-based polymers. Based on the results of current-voltage curves, impedance spectroscopy, and UV-VIS spectrophotometry, researchers in Japan have determined that exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light can damage the fragile organic molecules in the semiconducting layer just like it damages human skin. When some sulfur atoms in the materials get replaced by oxygen atoms from the atmosphere, the molecules no longer function as intended. The degradation products from solar damage increased the electrical resistance […]
An artificial sunflower that bends toward the sun
Phys.org November 5, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (UCLA, Arizona State University, industry) has created, sunflower-like biomimetic omnidirectional tracker (SunBOT), an artificial phototropic system based on nanostructured stimuli-responsive polymers that can aim and align to the incident light direction in the three-dimensions over a broad temperature range. Such adaptive reconfiguration is realized through a built-in feedback loop rooted in the photothermal and mechanical properties of the material. They have shown that an array of SunBOTs can, in principle, be used in solar vapour generation devices, as it achieves up to a 400% solar energy-harvesting enhancement over non-tropistic […]