Inexpensive Cu2SnS3 grown by room-temperature aqueous bath electrodeposition for thin film solar cells

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (19) ◽  
pp. 1840071
Author(s):  
Biren Patel ◽  
Indrajit Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Abhijit Ray

We report the growth of Cu2SnS3 (CTS) thin films on F-doped SnO2 (FTO) glass substrates at room-temperature by low-cost electrodeposition technique using an aqueous medium without the evolution of hydrogen. Electrolyte concentration and deposition potential were optimized under the limits of water hydrolysis. As-deposited films are post-annealed in the presence of the sulphur flakes to establish the stoichiometry. The annealed films were found to contain high phase purity and favorable optical properties to be useful for the photovoltaic applications. Optical data reveal that the CTS films have direct optical bandgap of 1.25 eV with an absorption coefficient of the order of 104 cm[Formula: see text]. A photovoltaic cell architecture of Glass/FTO (back contact)/CTS/CdS/Al:ZnO/Al (front contact) exhibited an open circuit voltage of 28 mV, a short circuit current density of 8.4 [Formula: see text]A/cm2 and the fill factor of 25%. The absorber thickness optimization and the use of Mo-coated glass as a back contact improve the solar cell parameters. A further study in this aspect is under way.

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Rachid Herbazi ◽  
Youssef Kharchouf ◽  
Khalid Amechnoue ◽  
Ahmed Khouya ◽  
Adil Chahboun

This work presents a method for extracting parameters from photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, based on the three critical points of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristic, i.e., the short-circuit current, the open circuit voltage and the maximum power point (MPP). The method is developed in the Python programming language using differential evolution (DE) and a three-point curve fitting approach. It shows a good precision with root mean square error (RMSE), for different solar cells, lower than to those cited in the literature. In addition, the method is tested based on the measurements of a solar cell in the Faculty of Science and Technology of Tangier (FSTT) laboratory, thus giving a good agreement between the measured data and those calculated (i.e., RMSE = 7.26 × 10−4) with fewer iterations for convergence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Tudor Cotfas ◽  
Petru Adrian Cotfas ◽  
Octavian Mihai Machidon

The temperature is one of the most important factors which affect the performance of the photovoltaic cells and panels along with the irradiance. The current voltage characteristics, I-V, are measured at different temperatures from 25°C to 87°C and at different illumination levels from 400 to 1000 W/m2, because there are locations where the upper limit of the photovoltaic cells working temperature exceeds 80°C. This study reports the influence of the temperature and the irradiance on the important parameters of four commercial photovoltaic cell types: monocrystalline silicon—mSi, polycrystalline silicon—pSi, amorphous silicon—aSi, and multijunction InGaP/InGaAs/Ge (Emcore). The absolute and normalized temperature coefficients are determined and compared with their values from the related literature. The variation of the absolute temperature coefficient function of the irradiance and its significance to accurately determine the important parameters of the photovoltaic cells are also presented. The analysis is made on different types of photovoltaics cells in order to understand the effects of technology on temperature coefficients. The comparison between the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current was also performed, calculated using the temperature coefficients, determined, and measured, in various conditions. The measurements are realized using the SolarLab system, and the photovoltaic cell parameters are determined and compared using the LabVIEW software created for SolarLab system.


Existing empirical solar cell models use one or two diodes. As the number of diodes in a model increases, the mathematical complexity in deriving model equations also increases. In this paper, a photovoltaic cell is modeled using three diodes. Non-linear mathematical equations governing the I-V and P-V characteristics are summarized and simulated using Matlab looping iterative method. All simulations were performed in Matlab. Comparison is made between all models (one, two and three-diode) for design verification. Results obtained show that as the number of diodes increases in a PV cell model, the open circuit voltage and maximum power decreases for a given set of PV cell parameters. The short circuit current remained at a fixed value irrespective of the number of diodes.


Inventions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waleed I. Hameed ◽  
Baha A. Sawadi ◽  
Safa J. Al-Kamil ◽  
Mohammed S. Al-Radhi ◽  
Yasir I. A. Al-Yasir ◽  
...  

Prediction of solar irradiance plays an essential role in many energy systems. The objective of this paper is to present a low-cost solar irradiance meter based on artificial neural networks (ANN). A photovoltaic (PV) mathematical model of 50 watts and 36 cells was used to extract the short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage of the PV module. The obtained data was used to train the ANN to predict solar irradiance for horizontal surfaces. The strategy was to measure the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of the PV module and then feed it to the ANN as inputs to get the irradiance. The experimental and simulation results showed that the proposed method could be utilized to achieve the value of solar irradiance with acceptable approximation. As a result, this method presents a low-cost instrument that can be used instead of an expensive pyranometer.


2013 ◽  
Vol 665 ◽  
pp. 330-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ripal Parmar ◽  
Dipak Sahay ◽  
R.J. Pathak ◽  
R.K. Shah

The solar cells have been used as most promising device to convert light energy into electrical energy. In this paper authors have attempted to fabricate Photoelectrochemical solar cell with semiconductor electrode using TMDCs. The Photoelectrochemical solar cells are the solar cells which convert the solar energy into electrical energy. The photoelectrochemical cells are clean and inexhaustible sources of energy. The photoelectrochemical solar cells are fabricated using WSe2crystal and electrolyte solution of 0.025M I2, 0.5M NaI, 0.5M Na2SO4. Here the WSe2crystals were grown by direct vapour transport technique. In our investigations the solar cell parameters like short circuit current (Isc) and Open circuit voltage (Voc) were measured and from that Fill factor (F.F.) and photoconversion efficiency (η) are investigated. The results obtained shows that the value of efficiency and fill factor of solar cell varies with the illumination intensities.


2012 ◽  
Vol 550-553 ◽  
pp. 476-479
Author(s):  
Ai Fen Wang

The three photovoltaic cells with two different anode buffer layer on the basis of Pentacene/C60 as active layer was fabicated, the effect and mechanism of anode buffer layer on performance of organic photovoltaic cell are explored. The experimental result shows transition metal oxide inserted between organic active layer and ITO could increase short circuit current and open-circuit voltage,power conversion efficiency is increased to 107%,so it is effective anode buffer material.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Tolić ◽  
Mario Primorac ◽  
Kruno Miličević

This paper presents measurement uncertainty propagation through four basic photovoltaic cell models: One-diode model without resistances, with one resistance and with two resistances and two-diode model with two resistances. The expressions for the output current of all photovoltaic cell models is presented as a function of global irradiance G and temperature T. Next, the expressions for all fill factor parameters: short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, current and voltage at the maximum power point, depending on the global irradiance G and temperature T are derived as well. For each parameter, Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the measurement uncertainty of the parameter are performed and the results were used as input values for the calculation of measurement uncertainty of fill factor. Practical calculations are performed in laboratory for renewable energy sources located on 45°32′ N and 18°44′ E. Final fill factor calculations are compared for three different module technologies.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla Gutierrez Z-B ◽  
Patricia G. Zayas-Bazán ◽  
Osvaldo de Melo ◽  
Francisco de Moure-Flores ◽  
José Andraca-Adame ◽  
...  

The preparation of ultra-thin semi-transparent solar cells with potential applications in windows or transparent roofs entails several challenges due to the very small thickness of the layers involved. In particular, problems related to undesired inter-diffusion or inhomogeneities originated by incomplete coverage of the growing surfaces must be prevented. In this paper, undoped SnO2, CdS, and CdTe thin films with thickness suitable for use in ultra-thin solar cells were deposited with a radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique onto conductive glass. Preparation conditions were found for depositing the individual layers with good surface coverage, absence of pin holes and with a relatively small growth rate adapted for the control of very small thickness. After a careful growth calibration procedure, heterostructured solar cells devices were fabricated. The influence of an additional undoped SnO2 buffer layer deposited between the conductive glass and the CdS window was studied. The incorporation of this layer led to an enhancement of both short circuit current and open circuit voltage (by 19 and 32%, respectively) without appreciable changes of other parameters. After the analysis of the cell parameters extracted from the current-voltage (I-V) curves, possible origins of these effects were found to be: Passivation effects of the SnO2/CdS interface, blocking of impurities diffusion or improvement of the band alignment.


2001 ◽  
Vol 668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhlesh Gupta ◽  
I. Matulionis ◽  
J. Drayton ◽  
A.D. Compaan

ABSTRACTHigh efficiency CdTe solar cells are typically grown with CdTe thicknesses from 3 to 15 μm, although the thickness required for 90% absorption of the incident irradiation at 800 nm is only ∼1 μm. In this paper, we present the effect of CdTe thickness reduction on the performance of CdS/CdTe solar cells in which both the CdS and CdTe films were grown by sputtering. We produced a series of cells with different CdTe thickness (from 0.5 to 3.0 μm), and held the CdS thickness and back-contact-processing constant. The effect of CdTe thickness reduction on the diffusion of CdS into CdTe was studied using optical absorption and x-ray diffraction techniques. Only slight decreases occur in open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and fill factor with decrease in CdTe film thickness to 1.0 μm. Almost 10% efficient cells were obtained with 1 μm CdTe. Below 1 μm, all cell parameters decrease more rapidly, including the red quantum efficiency.


Author(s):  
Roland Szabo ◽  
Aurel Gontean

The aim of this work is to introduce new ways to model the I-V characteristic of a PV cell or PV module using straight lines and Bézier curves. This is a complete novel approach, Bézier curves being previously used mainly for computer graphics. The I-V characteristic is divided in three sections, modeled with lines and a quadratic Bézier curve in the first case and with three cubic Bézier curves in the second case. The result proves to be accurate and relies on the fundamental points usually present in the PV cell datasheets: Voc (the open circuit voltage), Isc (the short circuit current), Vmp (the maximum power corresponding voltage) and Imp (the maximum power corresponding current) and the parasitic resistances Rsh0 (shunt resistance at Isc) and Rs0 (series resistance at Voc). The proposed algorithm completely defines all the implied control points and the error is analyzed. The proposed method is validated for different temperatures and irradiances. The model is finally compared and validated using the least squares fitting method.


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