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Materials
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Advanced Photovoltaic Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications
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Advanced Photovoltaic Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 2666

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Deying Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 3E4, Canada
Interests: perovskite materials for photovoltaic applications; perovskite materials for light-emitting diode applications

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Zero-carbon emissions is the global perspective on the development of a sustainable future. Solar energy, as a clean and sustainable energy, has witnessed an incredible increase in academic and industrial activity over the past several decades. Solar panels provide a direct way to convert solar energy into electricity. Silicon-based solar panels are the prevalent photovoltaic (PV) technology, yet there has been a sizable challenge to decrease the cost for decades in order to compete with the conventional fossil-fuel-based power sources without government subsidies. To seek much more affordable PV technologies, advanced materials for cost-effective PV technologies including organic solar cells, organic–inorganic hybrid solar cells, quantum-dot solar cells, compound semiconductor solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, tandem/multijunction solar cells, etc. have been explored in both academia and industry. Among them, most PV technologies are still in lab-scale research and are far from practical use. Efforts in cutting-edge research outcomes into action plans for cost-effective PVs are particularly critical in the research community.

This Special issue aims to cover the most recent progress on advanced PV materials, with a particular focus on synthesis, properties, and applications. All kinds of advanced PV materials are welcome. We especially encourage the submission of manuscripts addressing hot materials such as perovskite, organic, quantum dots, organic–inorganic hybrid materials, nanostructured silicon, etc.

Dr. Deying Luo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • perovskite
  • photovoltaics
  • solar cells
  • efficiency
  • interface

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 3999 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Potential of Pure Germanium Kesterite for a 2T Kesterite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cell: A Simulation Study
by Matas Rudzikas, Saulius Pakalka, Jolanta Donėlienė and Arūnas Šetkus
Materials 2023, 16(18), 6107; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16186107 - 7 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1020
Abstract
Recently, the development of tandem devices has become one of the main strategies for further improving the efficiency of photovoltaic modules. In this regard, combining well-established Si technology with thin film technology is one of the most promising approaches. However, this imposes several [...] Read more.
Recently, the development of tandem devices has become one of the main strategies for further improving the efficiency of photovoltaic modules. In this regard, combining well-established Si technology with thin film technology is one of the most promising approaches. However, this imposes several limitations on such thin film technology, such as low prices, the absence of scarce or toxic elements, the possibility to tune optical properties and long lifetime stability. Therefore, to show the potential of kesterite/silicon tandems, in this work, a 2 terminal (2T) structure using pure germanium kesterite was simulated with combined SCAPS and transfer matrix methods. To explore the impact of individual modifications, a stepwise approach was adopted to improve the kesterite. For the bottom sub cell, a state-of-the-art silicon PERC cell was used with an efficiency of 24%. As a final result, 19.56% efficiency was obtained for the standalone top kesterite solar cell and 28.6% for the tandem device, exceeding standalone silicon efficiency by 4.6% and justifying a new method for improvement. The improvement observed could be attributed primarily to the enhanced effective lifetime, optimized base doping, and mitigated recombination at both the back and top layers of the CZGSSe absorber. Finally, colorimetric analysis showed that color purity for such tandem structure was low, and hues were limited to the predominant colors, which were reddish, yellowish, and purple in an anti-reflective coating (ARC) thickness range of 20–300 nm. The sensitivity of color variation for the whole ARC thickness range to electrical parameters was minimal: efficiency was obtained ranging from 28.05% to 28.63%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Photovoltaic Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications)
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Review

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42 pages, 6199 KiB  
Review
Printing and Coating Techniques for Scalable Organic Photovoltaic Fabrication
by Bradley P. Kirk, Jonas M. Bjuggren, Gunther G. Andersson, Paul Dastoor and Mats R. Andersson
Materials 2024, 17(11), 2511; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17112511 - 23 May 2024
Viewed by 1136
Abstract
Within recent years, there has been an increased interest towards organic photovoltaics (OPVs), especially with their significant device performance reaching beyond 19% since 2022. With these advances in the device performance of laboratory-scaled OPVs, there has also been more attention directed towards using [...] Read more.
Within recent years, there has been an increased interest towards organic photovoltaics (OPVs), especially with their significant device performance reaching beyond 19% since 2022. With these advances in the device performance of laboratory-scaled OPVs, there has also been more attention directed towards using printing and coating methods that are compatible with large-scale fabrication. Though large-area (>100 cm2) OPVs have reached an efficiency of 15%, this is still behind that of laboratory-scale OPVs. There also needs to be more focus on determining strategies for improving the lifetime of OPVs that are suitable for scalable manufacturing, as well as methods for reducing material and manufacturing costs. In this paper, we compare several printing and coating methods that are employed to fabricate OPVs, with the main focus towards the deposition of the active layer. This includes a comparison of performances at laboratory (<1 cm2), small (1–10 cm2), medium (10–100 cm2), and large (>100 cm2) active area fabrications, encompassing devices that use scalable printing and coating methods for only the active layer, as well as “fully printed/coated” devices. The article also compares the research focus of each of the printing and coating techniques and predicts the general direction that scalable and large-scale OPVs will head towards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Photovoltaic Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications)
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