Theoretical study on the light harvesting efficiency of zinc porphyrin sensitizers for DSSCs

RSC Advances ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (51) ◽  
pp. 26621-26634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadali Chaitanya ◽  
Xue-Hai Ju ◽  
B. Mark Heron

DFT and TDDFT calculations have been carried out to investigate the effect of donor and acceptor groups on the electronic properties of zinc-porphyrin sensitizers. The calculated results show that increasing the electron releasing strength of a meso-donor group opposite to a meso substituted acceptor group increases the light harvesting efficiency and short circuit current density.

Nanoscale ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 9281-9286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Wan ◽  
Wenxiao Zhang ◽  
Yulei Wu ◽  
Xiaodong Li ◽  
Changjian Song ◽  
...  

A nanostructured electron-transporting layer based on PFPDI was introduced into inverted perovskite solar cells. The light-harvesting efficiency and the short-circuit current density were greatly improved.


2001 ◽  
Vol 708 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Geens ◽  
T. Aernouts ◽  
J. Poortmans ◽  
G. Hadziioannou

ABSTRACTThe technique of vacuum evaporation has been applied to deposit organic photovoltaic active layers. The five-ring PPV-type oligomer 2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-bis((4',4”-bisstyryl)styrylbenzene) (MEH-OPV5) and C60 act as respectively donor and acceptor materials in planar heterojunction (MEH-OPV5/C60) and bulk heterojunction (MEH-OPV5:C60) devices. These devices were fabricated with ITO/PEDOT:PSS bottom electrodes and Al top contacts. The performance of both solar cell configurations has been compared. It was found that under AM1.5 illumination the MEH-OPV5/C60 cells exhibit a higher open-circuit voltage (∼ 1.00 V) than the MEH-OPV5:C60 devices (∼ 0.92 V). On the other hand, the limited exciton diffusion length in these materials was reflected in the lower short-circuit current density of the planar heterojunction cells as compared to the bulk heterojunction structures. Overall AM1.5 power conversion efficiencies reaching 2 % are reported. Also the influence of the organic layer thickness and the substrate temperature during deposition on the device performance has been addressed. Thick organic films generally induce a high series resistance that limits both the short-circuit current density and the fill factor. An elevated substrate temperature during deposition of the MEH-OPV5:C60 layers onto ITO/PEDOT:PSS led to the formation of nucleated islands of 100 - 150 nm diameter with holes in between. As a result, no reliable photovoltaic devices could be realized with such organic films. AFM analysis and spectral response measurements supported these findings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 30201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Guan ◽  
Shiyu Wang ◽  
Wenxing Liu ◽  
Dashan Qin ◽  
Dayan Ban

Organic solar cells based on planar copper phthalocyanine (CuPc)/C60 heterojunction have been characterized, in which a 2 nm-thick layer of bathocuproine (BCP) is inserted into the CuPc layer. The thin layer of BCP allows hole current to tunnel it through but blocks the exciton diffusion, thereby altering the steady-state exciton profile in the CuPc zone (zone 1) sandwiched between BCP and C60. The short-circuit current density (JSC) of device is limited by the hole-exciton scattering effect at the BCP/CuPc (zone 1) interface. Based on the variation of JSC with the width of zone 1, the exciton diffusion length of CuPc is deduced to be 12.5–15 nm. The current research provides an easy and helpful method to determine the exciton diffusion lengths of organic electron donors.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3295
Author(s):  
Andrzej Sławek ◽  
Zbigniew Starowicz ◽  
Marek Lipiński

In recent years, lead halide perovskites have attracted considerable attention from the scientific community due to their exceptional properties and fast-growing enhancement for solar energy harvesting efficiency. One of the fundamental aspects of the architecture of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) is the electron transport layer (ETL), which also acts as a barrier for holes. In this work, the influence of compact TiO2 ETL on the performance of planar heterojunction solar cells based on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite was investigated. ETLs were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates from a titanium diisopropoxide bis(acetylacetonate) precursor solution using the spin-coating method with changing precursor concentration and centrifugation speed. It was found that the thickness and continuity of ETLs, investigated between 0 and 124 nm, strongly affect the photovoltaic performance of PSCs, in particular short-circuit current density (JSC). Optical and topographic properties of the compact TiO2 layers were investigated as well.


2021 ◽  
pp. 100783
Author(s):  
Christopher Rosiles-Perez ◽  
Sirak Sidhik ◽  
Luis Ixtilico-Cortés ◽  
Fernando Robles-Montes ◽  
Tzarara López-Luke ◽  
...  

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1684
Author(s):  
Alessandro Romeo ◽  
Elisa Artegiani

CdTe is a very robust and chemically stable material and for this reason its related solar cell thin film photovoltaic technology is now the only thin film technology in the first 10 top producers in the world. CdTe has an optimum band gap for the Schockley-Queisser limit and could deliver very high efficiencies as single junction device of more than 32%, with an open circuit voltage of 1 V and a short circuit current density exceeding 30 mA/cm2. CdTe solar cells were introduced at the beginning of the 70s and they have been studied and implemented particularly in the last 30 years. The strong improvement in efficiency in the last 5 years was obtained by a new redesign of the CdTe solar cell device reaching a single solar cell efficiency of 22.1% and a module efficiency of 19%. In this paper we describe the fabrication process following the history of the solar cell as it was developed in the early years up to the latest development and changes. Moreover the paper also presents future possible alternative absorbers and discusses the only apparently controversial environmental impacts of this fantastic technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangho Kim ◽  
Thanh Thuy Trinh ◽  
Jinjoo Park ◽  
Duy Phong Pham ◽  
Sunhwa Lee ◽  
...  

AbstractWe developed and designed a bifacial four-terminal perovskite (PVK)/crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterojunction (HJ) tandem solar cell configuration albedo reflection in which the c-Si HJ bottom sub-cell absorbs the solar spectrum from both the front and rear sides (reflected light from the background such as green grass, white sand, red brick, roofing shingle, snow, etc.). Using the albedo reflection and the subsequent short-circuit current density, the conversion efficiency of the PVK-filtered c-Si HJ bottom sub-cell was improved regardless of the PVK top sub-cell properties. This approach achieved a conversion efficiency exceeding 30%, which is higher than those of both the top and bottom sub-cells. Notably, this efficiency is also greater than the Schockley–Quiesser limit of the c-Si solar cell (approximately 29.43%). The proposed approach has the potential to lower industrial solar cell production costs in the near future.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4268
Author(s):  
Jessica de Wild ◽  
Gizem Birant ◽  
Guy Brammertz ◽  
Marc Meuris ◽  
Jef Poortmans ◽  
...  

Ultrathin Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layers of 550 nm were grown on Ag/AlOx stacks. The addition of the stack resulted in solar cells with improved fill factor, open circuit voltage and short circuit current density. The efficiency was increased from 7% to almost 12%. Photoluminescence (PL) and time resolved PL were improved, which was attributed to the passivating properties of AlOx. A current increase of almost 2 mA/cm2 was measured, due to increased light scattering and surface roughness. With time of flight—secondary ion mass spectroscopy, the elemental profiles were measured. It was found that the Ag is incorporated through the whole CIGS layer. Secondary electron microscopic images of the Mo back revealed residuals of the Ag/AlOx stack, which was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. It is assumed to induce the increased surface roughness and scattering properties. At the front, large stains are visible for the cells with the Ag/AlOx back contact. An ammonia sulfide etching step was therefore applied on the bare absorber improving the efficiency further to 11.7%. It shows the potential of utilizing an Ag/AlOx stack at the back to improve both electrical and optical properties of ultrathin CIGS solar cells.


2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 20901
Author(s):  
Abdul Kuddus ◽  
Md. Ferdous Rahman ◽  
Jaker Hossain ◽  
Abu Bakar Md. Ismail

This article presents the role of Bi-layer anti-reflection coating (ARC) of TiO2/ZnO and back surface field (BSF) of V2O5 for improving the photovoltaic performance of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) based heterojunction solar cells (HJSCs). The simulation was performed at different concentrations, thickness, defect densities of each active materials and working temperatures to optimize the most excellent structure and working conditions for achieving the highest cell performance using obtained optical and electrical parameters value from the experimental investigation on spin-coated CdS, CdTe, ZnO, TiO2 and V2O5 thin films deposited on the glass substrate. The simulation results reveal that the designed CdS/CdTe based heterojunction cell offers the highest efficiency, η of ∼25% with an enhanced open-circuit voltage, Voc of 0.811 V, short circuit current density, Jsc of 38.51 mA cm−2, fill factor, FF of 80% with bi-layer ARC and BSF. Moreover, it appears that the TiO2/ZnO bi-layer ARC, as well as ETL and V2O5 as BSF, could be highly promising materials of choice for CdS/CdTe based heterojunction solar cell.


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