Adhesion and Barrier Properties Analysis of Silica-Like Thin Layer on Polyethylene Naphthalate Substrates for Thin Film Solar Cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 113-118
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Addonizio ◽  
Luigi Fusco

In this investigation the surface properties optimisation of a flexible PEN foil to use as substrate for thin film silicon solar cells is presented. The polymer surface, usually hydrophobic and inactive to chemical reactions, can give poor adhesion for films deposited on it. Furthermore, gas desorption from the polymer sometimes causes serious problems to the quality of the devices. To overcome these problems a thin film of silica-like functional material has been developed on polymer foil. Silica-like films were produced by sol-gel process starting from an organic silanes compound (APTMS) as precursor and the solution was deposited by spin-coating. Amorphous silica-like films were obtained with a hydrophilic surface. They were smooth, dense, homogeneous, transparent and exhibited an excellent adhesion to the polymer substrate due to the chemical bond between amine groups of the APTMS with carbonyl bonds in PEN. Physical properties such as elastic modulus and hardness and the UV irradiation effect on structure and surface hydrophilicity of the silica-like coatings have been analysed. A water contact angle of 34° was obtained after UV irradiation. Nanoindentation analysis showed that the silica-like coating have an hardness and an elastic modulus up to 2.0 GPa and 13.2 GPa respectively much higher than that of pure PEN. Oxygen permeability measured on silica-like coated PEN gave a value of 5.7 x 10-9 cc m/m2 s atm showing larger barrier properties respect to pure PEN. Strong adhesion, improved mechanical properties and barrier effect of our silica-like coating make the modified PEN substrate suitable to be used in thin film solar cell technology.

2021 ◽  
pp. 413613
Author(s):  
Xin Liu ◽  
Xinyu Li ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
Qiulian Li ◽  
Daoyong Zhang ◽  
...  

RSC Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (58) ◽  
pp. 33710-33715
Author(s):  
Haoyu Xu ◽  
Dongqiang Chen ◽  
Litao Xin ◽  
Heju Xu ◽  
Wei Yu

A suitable annealing temperature was found by adopting the sol–gel method to prepare silicon-based molybdenum sulfide film heterojunction solar cells.


2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hegmann ◽  
Rainer Jahn ◽  
Steffi Schönau ◽  
Nicolas Sommer ◽  
Peer Löbmann

2009 ◽  
Vol 620-622 ◽  
pp. 695-698
Author(s):  
Jing Ma ◽  
Wen Xiu Liu ◽  
Xiao Guang Qu ◽  
Dan Ni Yu ◽  
Wen Bin Cao

TiO2 thin film was prepared on soda lime glass by hydrolysis of Ti(OC4H9)4 in alcoholic solutions by sol-gel method combined with spin-coating and calcination different temperatures. Prepared samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM, and measurement of contact angles and transmittance. XRD identification reveals that the films are composed of anatase TiO2 when the annealing temperature was set at 450~550 oC. SiO2 layer was coated on the surface of the glass firstly to barrier the diffusing of sodium ions from the substrate. Light-induced superhydrophilicity of the TiO2 thin film has been investigated. To increase the illumination light intensity will decrease the water contact angle. The superhydrophilicity of the TiO2 thin film will disappear more slowly in the dark than that in the field of ultrasound.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 6562-6570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Qin Zeng ◽  
Yan Qing Lai ◽  
Zi Li Han ◽  
Boon K. Ng ◽  
Zhi An Zhang ◽  
...  

A CZTSSe thin film solar cell was fabricated by a sol–gel method with an efficiency of 8.08%.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3090
Author(s):  
Jun Choi ◽  
Young Ki Park ◽  
Hee Dong Lee ◽  
Seok Il Hong ◽  
Woosung Lee ◽  
...  

A robust electron transport layer (ETL) is an essential component in planar-heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, a sol-gel-driven ZrSnO4 thin film is synthesized and its optoelectronic properties are systematically investigated. The optimized processing conditions for sol-gel synthesis produce a ZrSnO4 thin film that exhibits high optical transmittance in the UV-Vis-NIR range, a suitable conduction band maximum, and good electrical conductivity, revealing its potential for application in the ETL of planar-heterojunction PSCs. Consequently, the ZrSnO4 ETL-based devices deliver promising power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 19.05% from CH3NH3PbI3-based planar-heterojunction devices. Furthermore, the optimal ZrSnO4 ETL also contributes to decent long-term stability of the non-encapsulated device for 360 h in an ambient atmosphere (T~25 °C, RH~55%,), suggesting great potential of the sol-gel-driven ZrSnO4 thin film for a robust solution-processed ETL material in high-performance PSCs.


2013 ◽  
Vol 667 ◽  
pp. 447-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R. Zainun ◽  
Mohamad Hafiz Mamat ◽  
U.M. Noor ◽  
Mohamad Rusop

Solid state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were first reported in 1991 without employing p-type as hole conductor. The p-type as hole conductor was first introduced in 1995 and CuI is preferred among others p-type semiconductors. However, in 2003 utilizing of CuI based DSSC was found unstable by the excessive iodine strongly decreased the photocurrent of the cell. Later then, the stability of CuI based DSSCs was reported can be improved by added small amount of triethylamine hydrothiocyanate (THT) in the CuI coating solution. Following to that, in this work new chemical is introduce as an option to present situation which can give equally or better effective for fabrication of solid-state DSSCs. The chemical is called tetramethylethylenediamine (TMED), is employed to CuI in sol-gel process and their characterizations have been studied. The CuI coating solution was prepared by dissolved CuI powder with acetonitrile and added in 0.5mL TMED. Using spin coating technique the sol then deposited onto glass and silicon substrate at room temperature. The film were analyzed by their particles conductivity using pH meter, surface morphology using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) and optical properties using ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and photoluminescence (PL) measurement. The results of this sol-gel were compared with other CuI sol-gel which prepared by dissolved CuI powder with acetonitrile only. The optical transmittance within ultra-violet range exhibited that thin film is transparent and it optical band gap have been studied. Further clarification and measurements need to be done in order to prove that the proposed chemical can be used as an option.


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