Incorporation of vertically aligned nanorod/nanowire arrays of metal oxide (oxide-NAs) with a polymer can produce efficient hybrid solar cells with an ideal bulk-heterojunction architecture. However, polymer/oxide-NAs solar cells still suffer from a rather low (normally, < 0.4 V) open-circuit voltage (Voc). Here we demonstrate, for the first time, a novel strategy to improve the Voc in polymer/...

emerging technologies increase the needs on self efficient mobile robotic applications that bring a new concern of sustainable and continuous power supply for the robotic platforms. this paper covers the various techniques and technologies used to design a solar powered robot, exploring the currently available products, software and limitations to this application. the main aim is to integrate ...

Organic or ‘plastic’ solar cells are attractive for solar photoelectric energy conversion applications where low cost (such as large area), lightweight, and flexible shape are desired. The photoelectric power conversion efficiencies of currently reported organic/polymeric photovoltaic materials are still relatively low (typically less than 10% under AM 1.5 and one Sun intensity), and the three ...

A novel donor-acceptor type conjugated polymer based on a building block of 4,8-di(thien-2-yl)-6-octyl-2-octyl-5H-pyrrolo[3,4-f]benzotriazole-5,7(6H)-dione (TZBI) as the acceptor unit and 4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo-[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene as the donor unit, named as PTZBIBDT, is developed and used as an electron-donating material in bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells. T...

While bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells fabricated from high Mn PBDTTPD achieve power conversion efficiencies (PCE) as high as 7.3%, the short-circuit current density (JSC) of these devices can drop by 20% after seven days of storage in the dark and under inert conditions. This degradation is characterized by the appearance of S-shape features in the reverse bias region of current–voltage (...

a  commercial  ti-nanoxide  was  deposited  on  in-doped  sno2 (ito) polymer  substrates by  tape casting  technique with different thicknesses  (7,  14  and  36μm)  to  be  used  as  photoelectrode  in flexible  dye-sensitized  solar  cells  (dsscs).  ruthenium  dye  was adsorbed on each tio2 film for 24 h. the resulting photoelectrodes were used to form flexible dsscs in combination with elec...

A non-vacuum processing method for preparing polymer-based ZrO2/TiO2 multilayer structure antireflection coating (ARC) films for crystalline silicon solar cells by spin coating is introduced. Initially, ZrO2, TiO2 and surface deactivated-TiO2 (SD-TiO2) based films were examined separately and the effect of photocatalytic properties of TiO2 film on the reflectivity on silicon surface was investi...

Polymer solar cells are attracting attention as next-generation energy sources. Scalable deposition techniques of high-quality organic films should be guaranteed to realize highly efficient polymer solar cells in large areas for commercial viability. Herein, we introduce an ultrafast, scalable, and versatile process for forming high-quality organic films on an aqueous substrate by utilizing the...