Barium disilicide as a promising thin-film photovoltaic absorber: structural, electronic, and defect properties

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (48) ◽  
pp. 25293-25302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukesh Kumar ◽  
Naoto Umezawa ◽  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Motoharu Imai

We report on a barium disilicide (BaSi2) system as a potential absorber material for thin-film solar cells within the density functional theory framework by using advanced methods like GW and BSE and elucidate the first report on the molecular orbital diagram and defect physics in BaSi2.

Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Trang ◽  
Tran Ngoc Dung ◽  
Ngo Tuan Cuong ◽  
Le Thi Hong Hai ◽  
Daniel Escudero ◽  
...  

A class of D-π-A compounds that can be used as dyes for applications in polymer solar cells has theoretically been designed and studied, on the basis of the dyes recently shown by experiment to have the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE), namely the poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-butylhexylthio)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-TZNT] (PBDTS-TZNT) and poly[4,8-bis(4-fluoro-5-(2-butylhexylthio)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-TZNT] (PBDTSF-TZNT) substances. Electronic structure theory computations were carried out with density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory methods in conjunction with the 6−311G (d, p) basis set. The PBDTS donor and the TZNT (naphtho[1,2-c:5,6-c]bis(2-octyl-[1,2,3]triazole)) acceptor components were established from the original substances upon replacement of long alkyl groups within the thiophene and azole rings with methyl groups. In particular, the effects of several π-spacers were investigated. The calculated results confirmed that dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d] silole (DTS) acts as an excellent π-linker, even better than the thiophene bridge in the original substances in terms of well-known criteria. Indeed, a PBDTS-DTS-TZNT combination forms a D-π-A substance that has a flatter structure, more rigidity in going from the neutral to the cationic form, and a better conjugation than the original compounds. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy gap of such a D-π-A substance becomes smaller and its absorption spectrum is more intense and red-shifted, which enhances the intramolecular charge transfer and makes it a promising candidate to attain higher PCEs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Irfan ◽  
Abdullah G. Al-Sehemi ◽  
Shabbir Muhammad

Geometries, electronic properties, and absorption spectra of the dyes which are a combination of thiophene based dye (THPD) and IR dyes (covering IR region; TIRBD1-TIRBD3) were performed using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT), respectively. Different electron donating groups, electron withdrawing groups, and IR dyes have been substituted on THPD to enhance the efficiency. The bond lengths of new designed dyes are almost the same. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energies of designed dyes are above the conduction band of TiO2 and the highest occupied molecular orbital energies are below the redox couple revealing that TIRBD1-TIRBD3 would be better sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells. The broad spectra and low energy gap also showed that designed materials would be efficient sensitizers.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike J. Edwards

ABSTRACTBy means of the density functional theory framework (DFT) as well as the molecular dynamic simulations (MD), a polyelectrolyte chain (PE) in the good solvent conditions at thermal equilibrium is studied. The strength of the electrostatic interactions is varied by the Bjerrum length of the solvent. It turns out that average extension of a PE scales with the degree of polymerization, very much similar to a neutral polymer chain in good solvent. Remarkably, the difference between a PE and a neutral chain appears to be solely in the correlations among monomers which are stored in the Virial coefficients. Interestingly, upon increasing the Bjerrum length of solvent, the chain shrinks. This outcome is confirmed by the DFT framework as well as the MD simulations.SIGNIFICANCEThe significance of this study is that it strongly criticizes the idea (already mentioned in T. Kreer, Soft Matter, 12, 3479 (2016)) that the PEs behave similar to a neutral ideal chain. This study could be useful in our understanding of biopolymers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1107 ◽  
pp. 491-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrul Nadia Basri ◽  
Noriza Ahmad Zabidi ◽  
Hasan Abu Kassim ◽  
Ahmad Nazrul Rosli

The kesterite, Cu2ZnSnS4has a big potential as a future solar material in replacing current material. Although the kesterite and copper indium gallium selenide, CIGS has almost same structure but the constituent elements of kesterite are earth-abundance, cheaper and non-toxic. The chalcogen elements existed inside the kesterite compound are selenium and sulphur, Cu2ZnSnSe4/ Cu2ZnSnS4. Therefore, the structural flexibility of kesterite opens up an avenue to develop light-absorber material with suitable properties and applications. The density functional theory (DFT) has been used to calculate the total energy of Kesterite developed from Material Studio - CASTEP. The general gradient approximation (GGA) has been choosing to treat the exchange-correlation. The structure of kesterite has been developed by determining its space group, I4 and Pc and its coordination of each atom. The previous calculated shown that the energy of its band gap is around 1.0-1.5 eV.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike John Edwards

The density functional theory framework and the scaling theory are employed to approach the problem of the Polyelectrolyte brush bilayer under shear. It turns out that, the system at shear rates larger than a critical shear rate undergo a global restructuring during which chains stretch in the shear direction. In the absence of the electrostatic interactions as well as the hydrodynamic interactions, this global restructuring causes a sublinear scaling of the shear stress with the shear rate which makes the shear thinning effect. Nevertheless, in the presence of the hydrodynamic interactions, not only there is no sublinear regime but also a weak superlinear regime which makes a weak shear thickening effect. In the presence of the electrostatic interactions, the stress tensor components change by their second Virial coefficients, however, their shear rate power law are untouched. Nonetheless, the kinetic friction coefficient is independent of the electrostatic interactions. This suggests that the lubrication is not very much different than the neutral bilayers and the electrostatic interactions do not change that. The results of this study offers that maybe nature uses another mechanism to reduce friction coefficient in synovial joint and other biological systems.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Edwards

By means of the density functional theory framework I tackle the long-standing problem of a polymer star interpenetrating with a polymer brush at thermal equilibrium. Remarkably, the star is repelled to the outside of the brush once it sucks into the brush. It turns out that there could be a highly fluctuating region at the brush edge. The highly fluctuating region would be responsible for discontinuous absorption transitions by brushes. However, up to an small interpenetration length, below which asphericity of the star is maintained, the star gets collapsed by sucking more and more into the brush.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 1067-1073
Author(s):  
Roya Momen ◽  
Alejandro Morales-Bayuelo

The Three-Dimensional Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (3D QSAR) models now have a wide range of applications; however, new methodologies are required due to the complexity in understanding their results. This research presents a generalized version of quantum similarity field and chemical reactivity descriptors within the density functional theory framework. By taking reference compounds, this generalized methodology can be used to understand the biological activity of a molecular set. In this sense, this methodology allows to study of the CoMFA in quantum similarity and chemical reactivity. It is feasible to investigate steric and electrostatic effects on local substitutions using this method. They were considering that how these methodologies could be used when the receptor is known or unknown.


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