Materials employed to harvest sunlight are commonly recognized to be at a premium when their optical absorption peaks in the visible, extends to the infrared, is panchromatic, and is matched to the solar spectrum. By contrast, natural photosynthetic absorbers such as chlorophylls and carotenoids display absorption spectra with narrow peaks for yet-unknown evolutionary reasons. Beyond such gener...

To make full use of the solar energy, exploring broad spectrum active photocatalysts has become one of the core issues for photocatalysis. Here we report a novel hexagonal 2H-MoSe2 photocatalyst with ultraviolet (UV)-visible-near infrared (NIR) light response for the first time. The results indicate that the MoSe2 displays excellent photo-absorption and photocatalytic activity in the reduction ...

This chapter discusses studies of semiconducting nanowire arrays for solar cells. The concept of 3D nanowire architectures for photovoltaic light harvesting to effectively decouple light absorption and carrier separation is presented. The available literature on semiconductor nanowire solar cell studies is summarized. Optical and electronic aspects specific to nanowires are discussed to illustr...

The conversion of solar energy with simultaneous electric energy storage provides a promising means for optimizing energy utilization efficiency and reducing device volume. In this paper, a 3-dimensional mesoporous carbon coated branched TiO2 nanowire composite is rationally designed for direct conversion and storage of solar energy as electric double-layer capacitive energy. The 1-dimensional,...

integrated energy systems utilizing renewable sources are sustainable and environmentally substitutes for conventional fossil-fired energy systems. a new multigeneration plant with two inputs, such as biomass and solar energy, and four useful outputs, such as cooling, heating, power, and distilled water, is presented and investigated in this paper. the proposed system includes evacuated tube so...

Diffraction gratings are effective ways of increasing the light absorption of solar cells and the light extraction of light-emitting diodes. In this paper, we show that simplified modal analysis can be used as a conceptual model for understanding the behavior of the diffuse transmittance of lamellar diffraction gratings on infinite substrates. We use simplified modal analysis to predict the opt...

The effects of silicon solar cell with presence of double layer anti-reflecting coating SiO and Si N 2 3 4 were discussed in this paper. The comparison were varied using different incident light of 90°, 60° and 30° to study the performance of the photovoltaic efficiency and external quantum efficiency of SiO /Si N silicon solar 2 3 4 cell. The solar cell structure was modelled by using Silvaco ...

Providing green energy for human consumption has become a main goal of industry and research in recent decades. Photovoltaic technology is a main candidate for this aim but it requires price reduction and efficiency increase to enable large scale commercialization. To comply with the cost effectiveness, the cells can be made very thin to reduce material consumption and materials with well-estab...