Next-Generation Solar Cells: Principles and Materials

Description

Building a sustainable energy system is one of the great challenges of our time that has prompted both academia and industry to seek alternative energy and renewable energy solutions. Recently, advanced materials and technologies for next-generation solar cells have been exploited to develop economically viable, high-performance solar cells. This book addresses the principles and materials for the development of next-generation solar cells for a sustainable global society. It reviews the structures, working principles, and limitations of solar cells as well as the improvement methods of their power-conversion efficiency. It introduces generations of cells as photovoltaic devices, including third-generation solar cells such as organic solar cells, quantum dots solar cells, and organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. It focuses on the emerging perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and deals with their cell configuration, transport materials, and fabrication processes in detail. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1: Electromagnetic Radiation 1.1: Light and Photon 1.2: Photometry 1.3: Blackbody Radiation 1.4: Planck’s Radiation Law 1.5: Solar Spectrum Chapter 2: Physics and Properties of Semiconductors 2.1: Atomic Structure of Semiconductor 2.2: Carrier Concentration 2.3: Doping 2.4: Drift and Mobility 2.5: Diffusion 2.6: Recombination 2.7: p-n Junction 2.8: Optical Properties 2.8.1: Absorption: Direct-Bandgap and Indirect-Bandgap Transitions 2.8.2: Luminescence Emission 2.8.3: Quantum Efficiency Chapter 3: Working Principles and Limitations of Solar Cells 3.1: Basic Structure and Working Principle of Solar Cells 3.1.1: Basic Structure of Solar Cells 3.1.2: Solar Cell Working Principles 3.2: Limitations and Improvements of Energy Conversion in Solar Cells 3.2.1: Efficiency Limitation Factors in Solar Cells 3.2.1.1: Energy bandgap 3.2.1.2: Interface defects 3.3: Maximum Efficiency of Solar Cells 3.4: Improvement of the Efficiency of Solar Cells 3.4.1: Tandem Solar Cells 3.4.2: Concentrator Solar Cells 3.4.3: Up- and Down-Conversion of Photons 3.5: Photovoltaic Generations Chapter 4: Generations of Solar Cells 4.1: First Generation: Solar Cells Based on Silicon Wafers 4.1.1: Basic Material 4.1.2: Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell 4.1.2.1: Monocrystalline silicon solar cell 4.1.2.2: Polycrystalline silicon solar cell 4.1.3: Solar Cell Performance 4.1.4: Cell Fabrication Technology 4.1.4.1: Wafer check 4.1.4.2: Texturing 4.1.4.3: Diffusion 4.1.4.4: Edge isolation 4.1.4.5: Anti-reflection coating 4.1.4.6: Contact printing 4.1.4.7: Testing and sorting 4.2: Second Generation: Thin-Film Solar Cells 4.2.1: Materials 4.2.2: Si-Based Thin-Film Solar Cells 4.2.3: Chalcopyrite-Based Solar Cells 4.2.4: Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) Solar Cells 4.3: Third Generation: Organic, Quantum Dot, Organometallic Solar Cells 4.3.1: Organic Solar Cells 4.3.2: Quantum Dot Solar Cell 4.3.2.1: Quantum dots 4.3.2.2: Quantum confinement effect 4.3.2.3: QD-sensitized solar cells 4.3.3: Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells 4.3.3.1: Dye-sensitized solar cells 4.3.3.2: Perovskite solar cells Chapter 5: Organic Solar Cells 5.1: Organic Semiconductors 5.2: Basic Operation Principles and Physical Mechanism 5.2.1: Absorption and Exciton 5.2.2: Diffusion and Dissociation 5.3: Organic Solar Cell Configurations 5.3.1: Planar Solar Cells 5.3.2: Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells 5.3.3: Polymer Solar Cells 5.3.4: All-Polymer Solar Cells 5.3.5: Ternary Polymer Solar Cells 5.3.6: Organic Tandem Solar Cells 5.4: Charge Dynamics in Polymer Solar Cells 5.4.1: Charge Dynamics Measurements 5.4.1.1: Transient absorption spectroscopy 5.4.1.2: Transient photovoltage and photocurrent 5.4.2: Exciton Dissociation and Charge Generation 5.4.3: Charge Recombination 5.5: Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells 5.5.1: Structure of DSSC 5.5.1.1: Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) substrate 5.5.1.2: Working electrode 5.5.1.3: Dye (or photosensitizer) 5.5.1.4: Electrolyte 5.5.1.5: Counter electrode (CE) 5.5.2: Operating Principles of DSSC 5.5.3: Performance of DSSC 5.5.4: Limitations of DSSCs Chapter 6: Quantum Dot Solar Cells 6.1: Physical Properties of Quantum Dot 6.1.1: What Are Quantum Dots? 6.1.2: Synthesis of Quantum Dots 6.1.3: Optical and Electronic Properties of Quantum Dots 6.1.4: Application of Quantum Dots 6.2: Quantum Dots Based Solar Cells 6.2.1: Quantum Dots Solar Cell Configuration 6.2.2: Basic Operation Principles and Physical Mechanism 6.3: Quantum Dot/Semiconductor Heterojunction Solar Cells 6.3.1: Schottky Junction Solar Cells 6.3.2: Depleted Planar Heterostructure Quantum Dot Solar Cells 6.3.3: Depleted Bulk Heterojunction Quantum Dot Solar Cells 6.4: Quantum Dots Sensitized Solar Cells 6.4.1: Structure and Working Principles of QDSSC 6.4.2: Components of QDSSC 6.4.2.1: Photoanode 6.4.2.2: QD sensitizers 6.4.2.3: Redox electrolytes 6.4.3: Suppression of recombination in QDSSCs Chapter 7: Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells 7.1: Graphene-Based Hybrid Solar Cells 7.2: Polymer–Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells 7.2.1: Material Aspects 7.2.2: Hybrid Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with Large Bandgap Nanocrystals 7.2.3: Hybrid Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with Low-Bandgap Nanocrystals 7.2.4: Limiting Factors of Polymer–QD Hybrid Solar Cells 7.2.5: Interfacial Engineering in Polymer–QD Hybrid Solar Cells 7.3: Charge-Transport Materials for Hybrid Solar Cells 7.3.1: Metal Oxide–Based Charge-Transport Materials 7.3.1.1: Electron-transport materials 7.3.1.2: Hole-transport materials 7.3.2: Graphene-Based Charge-Transport Materials 7.3.2.1: Tuning of the work function of graphene 7.3.2.2: Electron-transport materials 7.3.2.3: Hole-transport materials Chapter 8: Perovskite Solar Cells 8.1: What Are Perovskites and Their Properties? 8.1.1: Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Perovskites 8.1.2: Low-Dimensional Perovskites 8.1.3: All-Inorganic Perovskites 8.2: Perovskite Composition Engineering 8.2.1: A-Site Doping 8.2.2: B-Site Doping 8.2.3: X-Site Doping 8.3: History of Perovskite Solar Cell 8.4: Basic Working Principles Chapter 9: Structures, Transport Materials, and Deposition Methods for Perovskite Solar Cells 9.1: Perovskite Solar Cell Configurations 9.1.1: n-i-p Structure 9.1.2: p-i-n Structure 9.1.3: Hole-Conductor Free Perovskite Solar Cells 9.1.4: Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells 9.2: Transport Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells 9.2.1: Electron-Transport Materials 9.2.1.1: Organic materials 9.2.1.2: Inorganic materials 9.2.2: Hole-Transport Materials 9.2.2.1: Organic materials 9.2.2.2: Inorganic materials 9.3: Deposition Methods for Perovskite Solar Cells Fabrication 9.3.1: Spin-Coating Deposition 9.3.2: Vapor-Assisted Deposition 9.3.3: Printing Deposition Chapter 10: Defects and Ions Migration in Perovskite Solar Cells 10.1: Nature of Defects 10.2: Defects and Charge-Transport Processes 10.3: Formation of Intrinsic Defects 10.4: Light Soaking and Trap Filling 10.5: Extrinsic Defects 10.6: Techniques to the Probe Defect States 10.7: Ions Migration 10.8: Ions Migration in Operating Solar Cell Chapter 11: Quantum Dots, Tandem, and Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells 11.1: Perovskite Quantum Dots Solar Cells 11.1.1: From Perovskite Thin Films to Quantum Dots 11.1.2: Crystal Structure and Properties of Perovskite QDs 11.1.3: Emerging of Perovskite QDSCs 11.1.4: Methods of Enhancing the Device Performance of PQDSCs 11.2: Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells 11.2.1: Working Principles of Tandem Solar Cells 11.2.2: Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells 11.2.2.1: Bandgap dependency of perovskite 11.2.2.2: Perovskite/Si tandem solar cells 11.2.2.3: Perovskite/chalcogenide thin-film tandem solar cells 11.2.2.4: All-perovskite tandem solar cells 11.3: Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells 11.3.1: Limitations of Pb-Based Perovskite Materials 11.3.2: Tin-Based Perovskites 11.3.3: Germanium-Based Perovskites 11.3.4: Antimony- and Bismuth-Based Perovskites 11.3.5: Halide Double Perovskites Chapter 12: Composites-Based Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells with Interface Engineering 12.1: Organic Materials–Based Perovskite Composites 12.1.1: Small-Molecule-Based Perovskite Composites 12.1.2: Polymer-Based Perovskite Composites 12.1.3: Ammonium-Based Perovskite Composites 12.1.4: Low-Dimensional/Three-Dimensional Perovskite Composites 12.2: Inorganic Material–Based Perovskite Composites 12.2.1: Metal Oxide–Based Perovskite Composites 12.2.2: Carbon-Based Perovskite Composites 12.2.3: Semitransparent PSCs with Metal Oxide–Based Composites 12.2.4: Other Inorganic Halides–Based Perovskite Composites 12.3: Stability Enhancement with Interface Engineering 12.3.1: Why Is Interface Engineering Needed? 12.3.2: Interface Engineering at TCO/ETL Interface 12.3.3: Interface Engineering at ETL/AL Interface 12.3.4: Interface Engineering at AL/HTL Interface 12.3.5: Interface Engineering at HTL/Electrode Interface 12.3.6: Interface Engineering at Multi-Interface Locations 12.4: Composite-Based Charge-Transport Materials 12.4.1: Composite-Based Electron-Transport Layer 12.4.2: Composite-Based Hole-Transport Layer Chapter 13: Characterization of Solar Cell Materials and Devices 13.1: Spectroscopic Techniques 13.2: Chemical Analysis 13.2.1: Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy 13.2.2: X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) 13.2.3: Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy 13.3: Physical Analysis 13.3.1: Raman Spectroscopy 13.3.2: Photoluminescence (PL) Spectroscopy 13.3.3: UV–Vis Absorption Spectroscopy 13.3.4: Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS) 13.4: Structural Analysis 13.4.1: X-ray Diffraction Analysis 13.4.2: Electron Microscopy 13.4.2.1: Transmission electron microscope (TEM) 13.4.2.2: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) 13.4.3: Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) 13.5: Characterization of Photovoltaic Parameters 13.5.1: Current–Voltage Analysis 13.5.2: Incident Photon-to-Current Conversion Efficiency Analysis 13.5.3: Impedance Spectroscopy 13.5.4: Space-Charge-Limited Current Index