Search results for " Solar cell"

Correction: Phenothiazine-based dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

2016

Correction for ‘Phenothiazine-based dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells’ by Zu-Sheng Huang et al., J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 2404–2426.

Tackling Performance Challenges in Organic Photovoltaics: An Overview about Compatibilizers

2020

Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) based on Bulk Heterojunction (BHJ) blends are a mature technology. Having started their intensive development two decades ago, their low cost, processability and flexibility rapidly funneled the interest of the scientific community, searching for new solutions to expand solar photovoltaics market and promote sustainable development. However, their robust implementation is hampered by some issues, concerning the choice of the donor/acceptor materials, the device thermal/photo-stability, and, last but not least, their morphology. Indeed, the morphological profile of BHJs has a strong impact over charge generation, collection, and recombination processes; control o…

Shedding Light on Graphene Quantum Dots: Key Synthetic Strategies, Characterization Tools, and Cutting-Edge Applications

2021

During the last 20 years, the scientific community has shown growing interest towards carbonaceous nanomaterials due to their appealing mechanical, thermal, and optical features, depending on the specific nanoforms. Among these, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) recently emerged as one of the most promising nanomaterials due to their outstanding electrical properties, chemical stability, and intense and tunable photoluminescence, as it is witnessed by a booming number of reported applications, ranging from the biological field to the photovoltaic market. To date, a plethora of synthetic protocols have been investigated to modulate the portfolio of features that GQDs possess and to facilitate the…

Perovskite solar cells employing organic charge-transport layers

2013

Thin-film photovoltaics play an important role in the quest for clean renewable energy. Recently, methylammonium lead halide perovskites were identified as promising absorbers for solar cells(1). In the three years since, the performance of perovskite-based solar cells has improved rapidly to reach efficiencies as high as 15%(1-10). To date, all high-efficiency perovskite solar cells reported make use of a (mesoscopic) metal oxide, such as Al2O3, TiO2, or ZrO2, which requires a high-temperature sintering process. Here, we show that methylammonium lead iodide perovskite layers, when sandwiched between two thin organic charge-transporting layers, also lead to solar cells with high power-conve…

Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in organic solar cells incorporating polymeric compatibilizers

2018

Performance Analyses of Innovative Glassblocks for BIPV

2014

The paper illustrates the results of the performance analyses conducted on an innovative glassblock integrated with 3rd generation dye-sensitized solar cells, designed for enabling the construction of translucent and sustainable building envelopes. The analyses encompass the simulation of both thermal and optical performance referring to different configurations of the PV-integrated glassblock, showing the results obtained by using two different software tools: Comsol Multiphysics and WINDOW. The configurations may differ, for example, because of the position of the module inside the glassblock, the type of dye-sensitized solar module used (composition, transparency, design), and glassblock…

Plasmonic layers based on Au-nanoparticle-doped TiO2 for optoelectronics: structural and optical properties.

2013

The anti-reflective effect of dielectric coatings used in silicon solar cells has traditionally been the subject of intensive studies and practical applications. In recent years the interest has permanently grown in plasmonic layers based on metal nanoparticles, which are shown to increase light trapping in the underlying silicon. In the present work we have combined these two concepts by means of in situ synthesis of Au nanoparticles in a dielectric matrix (TiO2), which is commonly used as an anti-reflective coating in silicon solar cells, and added the third element: a 10–20% porosity in the matrix. The porosity is formed by means of a controllable wet etching by low concentration HF. As …

Impact of hydroxy and octyloxy substituents of phenothiazine based dyes on the photovoltaic performance

2013

Two novel organic dyes containing hydroxy and octyloxy substituents onto a phenothiazine skeleton were synthesized and their effects on the photovoltaic performance were studied. Hydroxy acts as an ancillary anchoring unit along with the carboxylic group, while the phenothiazine modified moiety acts as an electron donor. The photophysical and electrochemical studies revealed that maximum absorbance of the dye with the hydroxy group in the solution was blue shifted and its band gap increased, indicating that donor acceptor strength was reduced as compared to the octyloxy substituted dye. Furthermore, electron lifetime of the organic dye with the hydroxy moiety was shorter due to smaller resi…

Colloidal Self-assembled Nanosphere Arrays for Plasmon-enhanced Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

2014

To realize high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells it is crucial to develop light-trapping methods that can increase absorption of the near- bandgap light in the silicon material. That can be achieved using the far-field scattering properties of metal nanoparticles (MNP) sustaining surface plasmons. The MNPs should be inserted in the back of the cell, embedded in the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer which separates the rear mirror from the silicon layers. In this way, a plasmonic back reflector (PBR) is constructed that can redirect light at angles away from the incidence direction and thereby increase its path length in the cell material. In this work, a novel technique is pr…

Consistent device simulation model describing perovskite solar cells in steady-state, transient, and frequency domain

2019

​This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.9b04991