Phys.org October 31, 2019 Invisible infrared light accounts for half of all solar radiation on the Earth’s surface, yet ordinary solar energy systems have limited ability in converting it to power. A team of international researchers (Sweden, China) has developed film combining nanocrystals with chains of microlenses that can be applied on top of ordinary solar cells. The ability of the microlenses to concentrate light allows the nanoparticles to convert the weak IR light radiation to visible light which is useful for solar cells increasing their efficiency by 10 percent or more…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Tag Archives: Solar cells
Unleashing perovskites’ potential for solar cells
MIT News February 7, 2019 Perovskites have attracted a great deal of attention as potential new solar-cell materials because of their low cost, flexibility, and relatively easy manufacturing process. But much remains unknown about the details of their structure and the effects of substituting different metals or other elements within the material. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, UC San Diego, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Argonne National Laboratory) found that adding these alkali metals, such as cesium or rubidium, to the perovskite compound helps some of the other constituents to mix together more smoothly making it […]
Dual-layer solar cell sets record for efficiently generating power
Nanowerk August 31, 2018 The combination of hybrid perovskite and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) has the potential for realizing high-efficiency thin-film tandem solar cells because of the complementary tunable bandgaps and excellent photovoltaic properties of these materials. Researchers in Japan used nanoscale interface engineering of the CIGS surface and a heavily doped poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) hole transport layer between the subcells that preserves open-circuit voltage and enhances both the fill factor and short-circuit current. The solar cell achieved a 22.43% efficiency, and unencapsulated devices under ambient conditions maintained 88% of their initial efficiency after 500 hours of aging under continuous 1-sun illumination… read […]