Antireflection Coatings Based on Randomly Oriented ZnO Nanowires

Abstract

Glass is the most widely used transparent material for photovoltaic (PV) panels. Unfortunately, the glass introduces an additional interface and therefore optical losses, which can be mitigated using antireflection (AR) coatings. This article reports a scalable method to prepare AR coatings from ZnO nanowires (NWs) sorted by their size. The measured AR performance depends on the coating coverage and ZnO NW size, which is explained by scattering and absorption cross section simulations. Randomly oriented and size fractioned ZnO NWs with an average diameter of 19–30 nm and lengths of 121–273 nm demonstrate increased transmittance and decreased reflectance compared to a glass substrate in case of low coverage. The experimental PV modules with ZnO NW coatings show an 1.2% increase of the short circuit current. A strategy to decouple ZnO NW synthesis from AR coating preparation allows to tune NW reflectance and other optical properties by varying the length, diameter, and orientation of the constituent NWs. The proposed AR coating made from size‐sorted nanomaterials is not limited to ZnO and the method could be adapted to other materials and nanostructures.

ZnO tetrapod morphology influence on UV sensing properties

“…The samples centrifuged at 1000 rpm, 2000 rpm and 3000 rpm were collected, dried at room temperature, and used for size-variant ZnO-Ts suspensions in ethanol. In earlier works the different ZnO-T fraction influence on optical [30] and electrochemical [21] properties were determined; however, the UV sensing properties were not tested. To determine how ZnO-T size influences UV sensing properties, chemoresistive UV sensors were prepared, being ZnO-Ts used to form a contact bridge between electrodes (figure 1(a)).…”

The Effect of the Solution Flow and Electrical Field on the Homogeneity of Large-Scale Electrodeposited ZnO Nanorods

“…Nanostructures of ZnO with an RI profile between air and bulk ZnO are one of the most promising candidates [ 18 , 19 , 20 ] for ARCs, which are physically and technically compatible with the window layer. Consequently, these characteristics suggest that ZnO NRs are emerging as promising materials for solar cell antireflective coatings and solar thermal selective surfaces [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], demonstrating remarkable prospects.…”