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solar tandem

18.02.2016

A two-layer solar cell can turn up to 30% of the energy of sunlight into electricity.

Flexible solar cells do not need expensive silicon crystal substrates - they are printed on plastic film or metal foil. The price turns out to be lower, and the scope - due to flexibility - is larger. However, the efficiency of such batteries barely reaches 10% - not enough compared to 25%, which is reliably given by commercially produced silicon cells. Researchers at the EMPA International Center headquartered in Switzerland have tried to improve efficiency by applying a two-layer coating to absorb light.

A semiconductor's ability to convert light into electricity is limited by its band gap. If the energy of the light quantum is less, there will be no current. If more - excess energy will go into heat. By capturing the more energetic violet-yellow quanta in one layer, and the less energetic red and infrared quanta in another, it will be possible to more fully utilize the light of the sun.

To capture violet-yellow quanta, EMPA engineers synthesized a thin layer of methylammonium lead iodide in the form of small crystals with a perovskite lattice. Perovskites have long attracted the attention of solar power engineers, but due to the fact that their crystals grow poorly, it was not possible to achieve a result that would allow them to think about introducing them into production. Now the intermediate organic layer built on the basis of C61 fullerenes helped. The perovskite layer on it turned out to be not only durable and flexible, but also transparent, transmitting the red part of the spectrum.

It is utilized by the second semiconductor layer - copper-indium-gallium diselenide; the best sample showed an efficiency of 20,5%. Now the authors of the work, led by Aedhya Tiari, intend to improve the technology and achieve the 30% efficiency that follows from the calculation for such solar cells. The main highlight of the technology is that the perovskite layer is applied at a temperature of only 50°C, which allows the use of an organic intermediate layer.

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A new color 3D printing method 09.08.2018

Today, people are exploring how 3D printing can be used in manufacturing, medicine, fashion, and even the food industry. But one of the most efficient forms of 3D printing has a serious flaw: it only prints black and white objects. Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Spain) have changed the method of XNUMXD printing with SLS technology so that it is possible to print in all colors of the rainbow.

Selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printers use a laser to heat a powdered material - usually nylon or polyamide. Under the action of high temperature, the powder particles are sintered - and a single solid mass is formed. The printer adds material layer by layer until the desired XNUMXD structure is achieved. To reduce the energy requirements of the process, the researchers decided to add special compounds to the polymer powders - photosensitizers: carbon nanotubes, carbon black and graphene. These materials absorb light much more strongly than polymers and convert it to heat much faster, allowing the use of cheaper, lower power lasers. However, carbon-based photosensitizers can only produce gray or black printed objects.

Scientists from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, The Institute of Photonic Sciences) wanted to find a photosensitizer that would allow printing colored objects using the SLS method.

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In addition, the new photosensitizers help produce purer white objects and - when mixed with dyes - brightly colored three-dimensional objects.

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