A research team, affiliated with UNIST, has managed to achieve an energy conversion efficiency (PEC) of 23.50% in a tandem perovskite-silicon solar cell built with a special textured anti-reflective coating (ARC) polymer film. According to the research team, the PCE of the device with the ARC film lasted for 120 hours, retaining 91% of its original value.
This breakthrough was led by Professor Kyoung Jin Choi and his research team in UNIST’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Jung-Kun Lee and his research team from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States.
In the work, the research team systematically showed that a combination of silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles and large phosphor particles can convert ultraviolet (UV) into visible light and increase the total transmittance of ARC film. Their experimental and computational results also show that SiO2 nanoparticles in the ARC film reduce the reflection by increasing the diffuse transmission.
In addition, the PCE of the device with the ARC film lasted for 120 hours, keeping 91% of its original value, while the PCE of existing devices dropped to 90% of its original efficiency after 5 hours and then decreased to 50% after 20 hours. In addition, the initial yield of the solar cell has also increased by almost 4.5% compared to the previous one.
“This optically designed ARC film successfully promotes the light absorption of the perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell, leading to an improvement in the energy conversion efficiency of the tandem cell from 22.48% to 23.50%,” the research team noted.
This study was jointly conducted by Seongha Lee (Department of Mechanical and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh) and Chan Ul Kim (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UNIST).
Story source:
materials supplied by Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). Originally written by JooHyeon Heo. Note: Content is editable for style and length.
