Above-11%-Efficiency Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells with Omnidirectional Harvesting Characteristics by Employing Hierarchical Photon-Trapping Structures

Abstract

Hierarchical structures consisting of micropyramids and nanowires are used in Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells to achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 11.48% with excellent omnidirectionality. The structure provides a combined concepts of superior light trapping ability, significant increase of p-n junction areas, and short carrier diffusion distance, improving the photovoltaic characteristics including short-circuit current density, fill factor, and PCE. The enhancement of power generation is up to 253.8% at high incident angles, showing the outstanding omnidirectional operation ability of hybrid cells with hierarchical Si surfaces. This properly designed hierarchical-structured device paves a promising way for developing low-cost, high-efficiency, and omnidirectional solar applications in the future.

Effect of Surface Morphology and Dispersion Media on the Properties of PEDOT:PSS/n-Si Hybrid Solar Cell Containing Functionalized Graphene

“…As evidenced by recent literature reports, silicon nanowire (SiNW) array exhibits not only perfect absorption but also a high surface to volume ratio compared to planar Si. Consequently, the next generation solar cells based on SiNW have attracted a great interest of scientists, engineers, and technology developers due to their potential for higher conversion efficiency and being cost-effective compared to the conventional bulk Si solar cell generation [6][7][8][9][10]. Unfortunately, all-inorganic solar cells based on SiNW usually require energy-intensive semiconductor processes, including high-temperature thermal diffusion, thermal annealing of the electrodes, and high-vacuum 2 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering chemical deposition processes and hence it will lead to increase the manufacturing costs.…”

“…Unfortunately, all-inorganic solar cells based on SiNW usually require energy-intensive semiconductor processes, including high-temperature thermal diffusion, thermal annealing of the electrodes, and high-vacuum 2 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering chemical deposition processes and hence it will lead to increase the manufacturing costs. For this reason, hybrid solar cells with radial heterojunctions that combine an organic with SiNW have been actively developed [10][11][12][13][14]. They not only require low-temperature fabrication due to the low thermostability of the organic material and solutionbased processes but also can realize lower manufacturing costs by utilizing inexpensive and abundant organic materials [14,15].…”

“…They not only require low-temperature fabrication due to the low thermostability of the organic material and solutionbased processes but also can realize lower manufacturing costs by utilizing inexpensive and abundant organic materials [14,15]. Besides, the cell might be useful for applications where low weight, mechanical flexibility, and disposability are essential [10,11]. There are a large number of reports on organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells with good power conversion efficiency in which a thin layer of conducting polymer poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is coated on Si nanowires to form the photovoltaic junction [16].…”

Fabrication of polypyrrole/ZnO nanowires based organic–inorganic hybrid p-n junctions

“…Such systems are widely believed to posses the potential to open up new platforms in nanoelectronics, through capitalizing on the intrinsic carrier mobility and enhanced optical activity existing within the inorganic nanostructures [4][5][6]. Likewise, bridging the interface between organic and inorganic counterparts is also said to aid the organic conductors in overcoming their stability related limitations.…”

The role of a LiF layer on the performance of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/Si organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Up to now, power conversion efficiency (PCE) of approximately 10% has been reported for solar cells based on Si/poly(3-hexylthiophene), 2,2,7 0 ,7 0 -tetrakis-(N,Ndi-4-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9 0 -spirobifluorene. 5,9,13 And PCE of $11% has been achieved for Si/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) based solar cells.…”