Analysis Of Carbon Nanotubes And Quantum Dots In A Photovoltaic DeviceM. Faisal Halim
Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes and Quantum Dots in a Photovoltaic Device
A poster prepared by Francis and me; presented by Francis. I modified on of the photographs used, in this copy.
Analysis Of Carbon Nanotubes And Quantum Dots In A Photovoltaic DeviceM. Faisal Halim
Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes and Quantum Dots in a Photovoltaic Device
A poster prepared by Francis and me; presented by Francis. I modified on of the photographs used, in this copy.
Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode
Introduction
Quantum dots (QD) or semiconductor Nano crystals could provide an alternative for commercial applications such as display technology. This display technology would be similar to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, in that light would be supplied on demand, which would enable more efficient displays.
Quantum dots could support large, flexible displays. At present, they are used only to filter light from LEDs to backlight LCDs, rather than as actual displays. Properties and performance are determined by the size and/or composition of the QD. QDs are both photo-active (photo luminescent) and electro-active (electroluminescent) allowing them to be readily incorporated into new emissive display architectures.
Definition
QD-LED or QLED is considered as a next generation display technology after OLED-Displays.
“QLED means Quantum dot light emitting diodes and are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display technology”. The light emitting centers are cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanocrystals, or quantum dots.
Charactristics
❀ QLEDs are a reliable, energy efficient, tunable color solution for display and lighting applications that reduce manufacturing costs, while employing ultra-thin, transparent or flexible materials.
❀ Quantum-dot-based LEDs are characterized by pure and saturated emission colors with narrow bandwidth.
❀ Their emission wavelength is easily tuned by changing the size of the quantum dots. Moreover, QD-LED offer high color purity and durability combined with the efficiency, flexibility, and low processing cost of organic light-emitting devices. QD-LED structure can be tuned over the entire visible wavelength range from 460 nm (blue) to 650 nm
❀ Due to spectrally narrow, tunable emission, and ease of processing, colloidal QDs are attractive materials for LED technologies.
My 9th Grade Brother asked me what I do in my lab, so I threw together this presentation. I am not sure how much a 9th Grader knows, but I intended this presentation to give him exposure, rather than to have him understand everything. Please feel free to critique my presentation, and certainly point out any pictures that I may have failed to give the original sources credit for.
Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode
Introduction
Quantum dots (QD) or semiconductor Nano crystals could provide an alternative for commercial applications such as display technology. This display technology would be similar to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, in that light would be supplied on demand, which would enable more efficient displays.
Quantum dots could support large, flexible displays. At present, they are used only to filter light from LEDs to backlight LCDs, rather than as actual displays. Properties and performance are determined by the size and/or composition of the QD. QDs are both photo-active (photo luminescent) and electro-active (electroluminescent) allowing them to be readily incorporated into new emissive display architectures.
Definition
QD-LED or QLED is considered as a next generation display technology after OLED-Displays.
“QLED means Quantum dot light emitting diodes and are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display technology”. The light emitting centers are cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanocrystals, or quantum dots.
Charactristics
❀ QLEDs are a reliable, energy efficient, tunable color solution for display and lighting applications that reduce manufacturing costs, while employing ultra-thin, transparent or flexible materials.
❀ Quantum-dot-based LEDs are characterized by pure and saturated emission colors with narrow bandwidth.
❀ Their emission wavelength is easily tuned by changing the size of the quantum dots. Moreover, QD-LED offer high color purity and durability combined with the efficiency, flexibility, and low processing cost of organic light-emitting devices. QD-LED structure can be tuned over the entire visible wavelength range from 460 nm (blue) to 650 nm
❀ Due to spectrally narrow, tunable emission, and ease of processing, colloidal QDs are attractive materials for LED technologies.
My 9th Grade Brother asked me what I do in my lab, so I threw together this presentation. I am not sure how much a 9th Grader knows, but I intended this presentation to give him exposure, rather than to have him understand everything. Please feel free to critique my presentation, and certainly point out any pictures that I may have failed to give the original sources credit for.
Ultra-optical characterization of thin film solar cells materials using core...IJECEIAES
This paper investigates on new design of heterojunction quantum dot (HJQD) photovoltaics solar cells CdS/PbS that is based on quantum dot metallics PbS core/shell absorber layer and quantum dot window layer. It has been enhanced the performance of traditional HJQD thin film solar cells model based on quantum dot absorber layer and bulk window layer. The new design has been used sub-micro absorber layer thickness to achieve high efficiency with material reduction, low cost, and time. Metallicssemiconductor core/shell absorber layer has been succeeded for improving the optical characteristics such energy band gap and the absorption of absorber layer materials, also enhancing the performance of HJQD ITO/CdS/QDPbS/Au, sub micro thin film solar cells. Finally, it has been formulating the quantum dot (QD) metallic cores concentration effect on the absorption, energy band gap and electron-hole generation rate in absorber layers, external quantum efficiency, energy conversion efficiency, fill factor of the innovative design of HJQD cells.
Electronic circuits provide us with the ability to control the transport and storage of electrons. However, the performance of electronic circuits is now becoming rather limited when digital information needs to be sent from one point to another. Photonics offers an effective solution to this problem by implementing optical communication systems based on optical fibers and photonic circuits. Unfortunately, the micrometer-scale bulky components of photonics have limited the integration of these components into electronic chips, which are now measured in nanometers. Surface plasmon-based circuits, which merge electronics and photonics at the Nano scale, may offer a solution to this size-compatibility problem. Here we review the current status and future prospects of plasmonics in various applications including plasmonic chips, light generation, and nanolithography.
Advance Solar Cells and Printed Solar Cell A Reviewijtsrd
Solar cell technology begin with first generation and third generation solar cells is discussed here by considering different advanced materials on which these technologies are based. The efficiencies attained with different new age solar cell technologies, limitations in their commercial application is overcome with the new technology used in solar cell. This paper is an overview of the advances technology used in solar cell and printed solar cell. Sukhjinder Singh | Nitish Palial | Rohit Kumar "Advance Solar Cells and Printed Solar Cell: A Review" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-5 , October 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd59981.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/electrical-engineering/59981/advance-solar-cells-and-printed-solar-cell-a-review/sukhjinder-singh
International Journal of Engineering and Science Invention (IJESI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Engineering and Science Invention (IJESI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of computer science and electronics. IJESI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Engineering Science and Technology, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
Effects of Different Parameters in Enhancing the Efficiency of Plasmonic Thin...IJAMSE Journal
Efficiency of thin film solar cells are less comparing to thick film solar cells which can be enhanced by utilizing the metal nanoparticles near their localized Plasmon resonance. In this paper, we have reviewed the Plasmon resonance of metallic nanoparticles and its application in solar cell technology. Beside this, we have also reviewed about different parameters which dominate the nanoparticles to increase optical absorption. Thus a cost-effective model has been proposed.
An organic solar cell or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: The WebAuthn API and Discoverable Credentials.pdf
U01061151154
1. IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IOSR-JEEE)
e-ISSN: 2278-1676,p-ISSN: 2320-3331, Volume 10, Issue 6 Ver. I (Nov – Dec. 2015), PP 151-154
www.iosrjournals.org
DOI: 10.9790/1676-1061151154 www.iosrjournals.org 151 | Page
Comparison of Different types of Solar Cells – a Review
A.Hema Chander1
, M.Krishna2
, Y.Srikanth3
1,2,3
GVP College of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam
Abstract: This paper deals with the various concepts of solar cells which include crystalline silicon solar cells,
thin film plasmonic solar cells and dye sensitized solar cells. The scattering from metal nano particles near their
localized Plasmon resonance is a promising way of increasing the light absorption in thin-film solar cells. Dye-
sensitized solar cells have the potential of high commercial appeal, low cost investments, and high-efficiency
conversion.
Key words: Plasmonic solar cell, Dye sensitized solar cell, photonic
I. Introduction
The increasing demand for energy, have pushed mankind to explore new technologies for the
production of electrical energy using clean, renewable sources, such as solar energy, wind energy, etc. Among
the non-conventional, renewable energy sources, solar energy affords great potential for conversion into electric
power. The conversion principle of solar light into electricity, called Photo-Voltaic or PV conversion. There are
large varieties of solar cells available of which crystalline silicon solar cells are mostly used.
A plasmonic solar cell is another concept of solar cells [1]. The term „Plasmonics' refers to the science
and technology dealing with manipulation of electromagnetic signals by coherent coupling of photons to free
electron oscillations at the interface between a conductor and a dielectric. This phenomenon is observed mainly
in metallic nano particles (MNP).
A dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is a low‐cost solar cell belonging to the group of thin film solar
cells. It is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo‐sensitized anode and an electrolyte, a photo
electrochemical system [2]. The dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSC) provide a technically and economically
credible alternative concept to present day p–n junction photovoltaic devices. In contrast to the conventional
systems where the semiconductor assume both the task of light absorption and charge carrier transport the two
functions are separated here. Light is absorbed by a sensitizer, which is anchored to the surface of a wide band
semiconductor.
This paper mainly deals with the plasmonic and dye-sensitized solar cells and a very little about conventional
PV device in the next sections.
II. Conventional P-N Junction Pv Device
Photovoltaic, the conversion of sunlight to electricity, are a promising technology that may allow the
generation of electrical power on a very large scale. It works on the basic principle of photovoltaic effect where
when a photon of energy hv which is equal or greater than the energy gap, is absorbed by the semiconductor
material the electron from the valence band gets excited to the conduction band and the excess energy, if any,
gets dissipated by interaction with matter (phonon scattering).A solar cell is essentially a p-n junction under
illumination. The electrons (holes) should be collected before they recombine with holes (electrons).Current due
to light depends on how many photons with energy > EG (band gap) are absorbed and how efficiently the
resulting EHPs (Electron Hole Pairs) are collected [3].
Fig 1: Schematic of Electrical circuit of the solar cell
2. Comparison of Different types of Solar Cells – a Review
DOI: 10.9790/1676-1061151154 www.iosrjournals.org 152 | Page
III. Plasmonic Solar Cell
A new method for increasing the light absorption that has emerged recently is the use of scattering
from noble metal nano particles excited at their surface Plasmon resonance. The term „Plasmonics' refers to the
science and technology dealing with manipulation of electromagnetic signals by coherent coupling of photons to
free electron oscillations at the interface between a conductor and a dielectric. Conventional crystalline Si solar
cells require thick absorption layers for complete absorption, due to which 40% of price goes in buying
crystalline Si itself. Therefore, to reduce cost there has been great interest in thin film solar cells with film
thicknesses in the range 1–2 μm [4]. Light scattering from a small metal nano particle embedded in a
homogeneous medium is nearly symmetric in the forward and reverse directions. This situation changes when
the particle is placed close to the interface between two dielectrics, in which case light will scatter preferentially
into the dielectric with the larger permittivity.
The scattered light will then acquire an angular spread in the dielectric that effectively increases the
optical path length (Fig 1). Light is preferentially scattered and trapped into the semiconductor thin film by
multiple and high-angle scattering, causing an increase in the effective optical path length in the cell. Moreover,
light scattered at an angle beyond the critical angle for reflection (16° for the Si/air interface) will remain
trapped in the cell. In addition, if the cell has a reflecting metal back contact, light reflected towards the surface
will couple to the nano particles and be partly reradiated into the wafer by the same scattering mechanism. As a
result, the incident light will pass several times through the semiconductor film, increasing the effective path
length. Due to these properties of the Plasmon resonance we get Absorption enhancement by 10 to100 folds
&increased optical path length and hence we can have significant reduction in the thickness of the solar cell.
Fig 2: Light trapping by scattering from metal nano particles at the surface of the solar cell.
1. Design Principles (Em) For Psc:
There have been design principles stated in the literature, but these are purely based on the
Electromagnetic consideration. Metal nano particles (MNPs) are strong scatterers of light at wavelengths near
the plasmon resonance, which is due to a collective oscillation of the conduction electrons in the metal. For
particles with diameters well below the wavelength of light, a point dipole model describes the absorption and
scattering of light well. The scattering and absorption cross-sections are given by:
Cscat =
1
6π
2π
λ
α 2
Cabs =
2π
λ
Im α
Where Polarizability is
α = 3V
εp
εm
− 1
εp
εm
+ 2
Where V is the particle volume, εp is the dielectric function of the particle and εm is the dielectric
function of the embedding medium. When εp = −2εm the particle polarizability will become very large. This is
known as the surface Plasmon resonance. At the surface Plasmon resonance, the scattering cross-section can
well exceed the geometrical cross section of the particle.
Let us define a term called Albedo which is given by:
Albedo ≅
Cscat
Cscat + Cabs
From above formula it is can be concluded that when the MNP is large the Cscat is much higher than
Cabs as it follows square dependence on Volume (which is internally dependent on cube of radius) as opposed to
linear dependence of Cabs. Therefore larger MNP size gives larger Albedo. On the other hand with increase in
diameter the effective distance of the dipole from the Si top increases and therefore we have lower coupling
3. Comparison of Different types of Solar Cells – a Review
DOI: 10.9790/1676-1061151154 www.iosrjournals.org 153 | Page
efficiency with larger MNP size. Therefore we can set our first design principle as follows (with a tradeoff
between Albedo and coupling efficiency requirements):
• Larger MNP - Larger Albedo (Should be around ~50-100nm in diameter)
• Larger MNP - Lower coupling efficiency
Similarly for larger coverage (many MNPs) we would get larger scattering cross section but here the absorption
cross section would also become significant (many MNPs hence higher absorption). Therefore second design
principle can be stated as:
• Larger Coverage - Higher Cscat
~10-20% Coverage
• Larger Coverage - Higher Cabs
On the same lines the spacer thickness (spacer : the material in which the MNP is placed, normally Si3N4) have
to be optimized to deal with the tradeoff between Albedo and fraction of light scattered in Si.
• Larger spacer thickness - Larger Albedo
• Larger spacer thickness - lesser fraction of light scattered into the substrate
Also other parameters like Distribution of Particles / Inter-particle distance need to be optimized.
IV. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (Dssc)
DSSCs differ from conventional semiconductor devices in that they separate the function of light
absorption from charge carrier transport. Dye sensitizer absorbs the incident sunlight and exploits the light
energy to induce vectorial electron transfer reaction. Thus DSSCs have the following advantages comparing
with the Si based photovoltaic: (1) It is not sensitive to the defects in semiconductors such as defects in Si. (2)
The semiconductor-electrolyte Interface (SEI) is easy to form and it is cost effective for production. (3) It is
possible to realize the direct energy transfer from photons to chemical energy. An intriguing feature in the nano
crystalline TiO2 film is that the charge transport of the photo-generated electrons passing through all the
particles and grain boundaries is highly efficient. In DSSC, the initial photo excitation occurs in the light
absorbing dye as shown in Scheme 1 as in Fig.3.
Nano porous semiconductors such as TiO2 not only act as support for dye sensitizer but also function as
electron acceptor and electronic conductor. Subsequent injection of electrons from the photo-excited dye into
the conduction band of semiconductors results in the flow of current travelling across the nano crystalline TiO2
film to the charge collecting electrode and then to the external circuit. Sustained conversion of light energy is
facilitated by regeneration of the reduced dye sensitizer either via a reversible redox couple (O/R), which is
usually I3-/I- (Scheme 1A) or via the electron donation from a p-type semiconductor (Scheme 1B).Scheme 1A
shows the mechanism of a traditional wet-type DSSC containing redox couples in electrolyte. The photo anode,
made of a nano porous dye-sensitized n-type semiconductor, receives electrons from the photo-excited dye
sensitizer which is thereby oxidized to S+. The neutral dye sensitizer (S) can be regenerated by the oxidation
reaction (R->O) of the redox species dissolved in the electrolyte. The mediator R will then be regenerated by
reduction at the cathode (O->R) by the electrons circulated through the external circuit.
Scheme1. Operation mechanism of the dye sensitized
electrochemical solar cell (DSSC).S: Dye sensitizer, S*:
Electronically excited dye sensitizer, S+: oxidized dye
sensitizer O/R:redox couple (e,g, I3-/I-). CB: Conduction
band for semiconductors, VB: valence band for
semiconductors. (A) Wet-type DSSC with redox couple
in the liquid electrolyte. (B) Solid state DSSC with a p-
type semiconductor to replace the electrolyte containing
the redox couple.
The need for DSSC to absorb far more of the
incident light was the driving force for the development
of mesoscopic semiconductor materials with an
enormous internal surface area. The major breakthrough
in DSSC was the use of a high surface area nano porous
TiO2 layer.
Fig 3: Scheme of operation of DSSC
4. Comparison of Different types of Solar Cells – a Review
DOI: 10.9790/1676-1061151154 www.iosrjournals.org 154 | Page
A single monolayer of the dye on the semiconductor surface was sufficient to absorb essentially all the
incident light in a reasonable thickness (several um) of the semiconductor film. TiO2 became the semiconductor
of choice with advantage properties of cheap, abundant, and non-toxic. The choice of dye is also an important
parameter. The first organic-dye photosensitization was reported in 1887 [12]. In traditional DSSC, the standard
dye was tris(2,2‟-bipyridyl-4,4‟-carboxylate) ruthium (II) (N3 dye). The function of the carboxylate group in the
dye is to attach the semiconductor oxide substrate by chemisorptions [9].The dye must carry attachment groups
such as carboxylate or phosphonate to firmly graft itself to the TiO2 surface. The attachment group of the dye
ensures that it spontaneously assembles as a molecular layer upon exposing the oxide film to a dye solution. It
will make a high probability that, once a photon is absorbed, the excited state of the dye molecule will relax by
electron injection to the semiconductor conduction band. The photovoltaic performance of N3 dye has been
irreplaceable by other dye complexes since 1993 [9]. A credible challenger was identified with tri (cyanato-
2,2‟,2‟‟-terpyridyl-4,4‟,4‟‟-tricarboxylate) Ru (II) (black dye) [11], whose response extends100 nm further into
the IR than that of the N3 dye [10]. It is not until recently that a high molar extinction coefficient heteroleptic
ruthium complex has been synthesized and demonstrated as more efficient sensitizer for DSSCs .To construct a
full solid-state DSSC, a solid p-type conductor should be chosen to replace the liquid electrolyte. The redox
levels of the dye and p-type materials have to be adapted carefully as Scheme 1B shows. It results in an electron
in the conduction band of n-type semiconductors (e.g., TiO2) and a hole localized on the p-type conductor. Hole
transporting amorphous materials have been used in nanocrystallineTiO2 based DSSC to transport hole carriers
from the dye cation radical to the counter electrode instead of using the I3-/I- redox species.
V. Conclusion
In the past few years, the field of plasmonics has emerged as a rapidly expanding new area for
materials and device research mainly because of the large array of tools that have become available for nano
scale fabrication and nano-photonics characterization, and also because of the availability of powerful
electromagnetic simulation methods that are critical for understanding and harnessing plasmon excitations. Solid
state and printable DSSCs will have a promising future for the development of efficient and flexible
optoelectronics. Even though DSSCs have lower light to electricity conversion efficiency than the best thin film
Si solar cells, they are considerably cheaper to be made and feasible to be printed on flexible substrate.
Amorphous Si thin-film cells degrade in sunlight over time, and their efficiencies also go down if the sunlight
hits them at some special incident angle. DSSCs are longer lasting and work at wide angles. In addition, DSSCs
work more efficiently in indoor light, because the dye absorbs diffuse sunlight as well as fluorescent lighting.
With improvements on nonvolatile electrolytes, organic dyes and nano porous semiconducting electrode,
cheaper but more robust DSSCs will definitely take their share in the solar cell markets competing with the
traditional thin film solar technologies.
References
[1] M. A. Green, and S. Pillai, “Harnessing plasmonics for solar cells,” in Nature Photonics,vol. 6, pp. 130-132, March 2012.
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