An all ambient, room temperature–processed solar cell from a bare silicon wafer

Abstract

Solar cells are a promising optoelectronic device for the simultaneous solution of energy-resource and environmental problems. However, their high cost and slow, laborious production process so far severely hinder a sufficient widespread of clean, renewable photovoltaic energy as a major alternative electricity generator. This undesirable situation is mainly attributed to the fact that photovoltaic devices have been manufactured through a series of vacuum and high-temperature processes. Here we realize a PEDOT:PSS/Si heterojunction solar cell fabricated only in ambient and room-temperature conditions from a plain Si wafer, with an over-10% energy conversion efficiency. Our production scheme is based on our finding that PEDOT:PSS photovoltaic layers actively operate even on highly doped Si substrates, which substantially mitigates the condition requirements for electrode implementation. Our approach may pave the way for facile, low-cost, high-throughput solar cell fabrication, useful in various fields even including developing countries and educational sites.

PEDOT:PSS-mediated semiconductor wafer bonding for built-in middle subcells in multijunction solar cells

“…As our experimental example, we employ an InP/PEDOT:PSS/Si layered heterostructure formed by InP/Si wafer bonding mediated by PEDOT:PSS, where PEDOT:PSS acts as a hole transport layer to activate a PEDOT:PSS/Si heterojunction solar cell. [19][20][21][22][23] Figure 6 presents a cross-sectional scanning electron microscope image of the bonded InP/PEDOT:PSS/Si heterostructure. This bonded heterostructure is positioned as a prototype of our photovoltaic functional bonding concept, mimicking an intermediate subcell section in a multijunction solar cell architecture.…”