As an earth-abundant p-type semiconductor, copper sulfide (Cu2S) is an attractive material for application in photovoltaic devices. However, it suffers from a minority carrier diffusion length that is less than the length required for complete light absorption. Core-shell nanowires and nanorods have the potential to alleviate this difficulty because they decouple the length scales of light abso...

Copper oxide (Cu2O)-based heterojunction solar cells were fabricated by spin-coating and electrodeposition methods, and photovoltaic properties and microstructures were investigated. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and Cu2O were used as nand p-type semiconductors, respectively, to fabricate photovoltaic devices based on In-doped tin oxide/ZnO/Cu2O/Au heterojunction structures. Short-circuit current and fill f...

We present a methodology for estimating the efficiency potential for candidate impurity-band photovoltaic materials from empirical measurements. This methodology employs both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and low-temperature photoconductivity to calculate a " performance figure of merit " and to determine both the position and bandwidth of the impurity band. We evaluate a candidate im...

This paper focuses on the optimization of the electric energy production by photovoltaic cells through the development of an intelligent sun-tracking system. The developed tracking system is innovative in relation to the usual sun tracking systems available in the market. In fact, the developed solution has many advantages in relation to similar existing devices, as this system is autonomous re...

Direct solar-to-fuels conversion can be achieved by coupling a photovoltaic device with water-splitting catalysts. We demonstrate that a solar-to-fuels efficiency (SFE) > 10% can be achieved with nonprecious, low-cost, and commercially ready materials. We present a systems design of a modular photovoltaic (PV)-electrochemical device comprising a crystalline silicon PV minimodule and low-cost hy...

The nanostructured ZnO/copper oxide (Cu2O) photovoltaic devices based on electrospun ZnO nanofibrous network and electrodeposited Cu2O layer have been fabricated. The effects of the pH value of electrodeposition solution and the Cu2O layer thickness on the photovoltaic performances have been investigated. It is revealed that the pH value influences the morphology and structure of the Cu2O layer...

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes decorated with Co and Ni metal nanoparticles were assessed as counter electrodes (CEs) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). These composites show good electrocatalytic activity toward the counter electrode reduction reaction (I3(-)→ I(-)) in DSSCs. The resulting devices using these composites as CEs display photovoltaic performance as good as, or even better th...

Cyclic voltammetry was used to measure PbS nanocrystal PbS-NC energy levels. Accuracy of these measurements was justified by electron transfer experiments, with well known fullerene derivatives, which included photoluminescence quenching experiments and current density-voltage measurements of hybrid photovoltaic devices. It is believed that these energy level measurements, carried out on PbS-NC...

Improving the performance of photovoltaics is important for increased deployment in a broad range of applications. In this article, it is shown that combining detailed models for full-wave optics with one or more other physics models represents an emerging field of research. In particular, connections are made with geometric optics, electronic transport, and thermal transport. First, structures...

The modeling and simulation of photovoltaic power generation system has become an important issue in the field of power generation. Research on the characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected system by hardware-in-the-loop simulation could provide convenient experiment condition and accurate result. This article designs a photovoltaic grid-connected simulation platform for digital/physi...