No abstract

Due to the recent surge in silicon demand for solar modules, thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules have a potential to penetrate the market in significant numbers. As an alternate candidate, thin film technologies in PVs have the ability to achieve better performance. The competing thin-film PV technologies have the flexibility to adapt to any sort of curvature compared to rigid solar cells (SCs).Due to the peculiar characteristics of newer solar materials, stability issues, reflection losses, advancements in electrode materials and dopant materials with a photoactive layer are current challenges driving the industrial-academic voyage of development of solar materials for the betterment of Photo-conversion Efficiency (PCE). Based on the photoactive materials used over time, SC evolution was broadly classified into first, second and third generation SCs. In this review, the basic working mechanisms, various materials used, drawbacks and stability issues of different SCs are discussed extensively. Thin film SCs tend to absorb certain elastic deformations due to their flexible nature and to a certain extent. According to the NREL efficiency chart, multi-junctional SCs exhibit enhanced efficiency as compared to the other SCs. Among the third-generation SCs, the perovskite/Si tandem architecture shows a maximum efficiency of approximately 29%. Thin film flexible SCs find application in various sectors such as automobile, defense and/or energy storage devices

No abstract

No abstract

The current research focuses on sol-gel derived synthesis and RF sputter deposition of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) over polycrystalline Si solar cell. Various coating layers were obtained under different sputter deposition at regular intervals. The influence of MoS2 sputter coating on optical, thermal chemical structural properties was examined through various characterisation techniques. 30 minutes coated solar cell reported maximum light transmittance of 95 % in the visible spectrum and minimum electrical resistivity of 2 × 10-3ohm-cm. 30 minutes coated solar cell exhibited maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.19 % (open source) and 21.01 % (controlled source). Thermal imaging data reveal that the optimal coating layer experiences a minimum temperature of 33.9 °C and 49.9 °C. From experimental results, sputter deposited MoS2 Si solar cells experience minimum light reflectance and enhanced cell performance.