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Photovoltaic efficiency enhancement of polycrystalline silicon solar cells by a highly stable luminescent film

利用高度稳定的发光薄膜提高多晶硅太阳能电池 的光伏效率

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Abstract

Si-based solar cells have dominated the entire photovoltaic market, but remain suffering from low power conversion efficiency (PCE), partly because of the poor utilization of ultraviolet (UV) light. Europium(III) (Eu3+) complexes with organic ligands are capable of converting UV light into strong visible light, which makes them ideal light converter to increase the efficiency of solar cells. However, the low stability of such complexes seriously hampers their practical applications. In this work, we report a highly stable and luminescent ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer film consisting of a Eu3+ complex as a down-shift material, Eu (ND)4CTAC (ND = 4-hydroxy-2-methyl-1,5-naphthyridine-3-carbonitrile, CTAC = hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride), coating of which onto the surface of large area polycrystalline silicon solar cells (active area: 110 cm2) results in an increase of PCE from 15.06% to 15.57%. Remarkable stability of the luminescent film was also demonstrated under light-soaking test for 500 h, and no obvious luminescence degradation can be observed. The remarkable enhancement of the conversion efficiency by 0.51% absolute on such a large active area, together with the high stability of the luminescent film, demonstrates a prospect for the implementation of the films in photovoltaic industry.

摘要

硅基太阳能电池已经主导了整个光伏市场, 但是仍然面临着 光电转化效率低的问题, 其中部分原因是其对紫外线的利用率较 低. 稀土铕配合物能够将紫外光转化为可见光, 有望提高硅基太阳 能电池的光电转化效率. 然而, 这类配合物较低的稳定性限制了它 们的实际应用. 本文中, 我们制备了一种高度稳定的EVA/Eu(ND)4-CTAC发光薄膜, 将其覆盖在大尺寸的多晶硅太阳能电池表面 (110 cm2)可以使得光电转化效率从15.06%提高到15.57%. 在500 h 的加速老化实验中荧光性能几乎没有下降, 证明了发光薄膜的超 强稳定性. 在如此大的有效面积上, 发光薄膜使硅基太阳能电池的 转换效率提高0.51%的绝对值, 同时实现超高的稳定性, 说明该发 光膜在光伏工业上具有广阔的应用前景.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21771050), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (B2016202147 and B2016202149), the Educational Committee of Hebei Province (LJRC021 and QN2015172), Hebei Province Natural Science Foundation (B2017202048), and Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (18JCYBJC17200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300130, China

    Yuan Wang  (王元) & Huanrong Li  (李焕荣)

  2. Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, 14F. Joliot-Curie Str., 50-383, Wroclaw, Poland

    Paula Gawryszewska-Wilczynsk

  3. Tianjin Baogang Research Institute of Rare Earths Co., Ltd., Tianjin, 300300, China

    Xiurong Zhang  (张秀荣), Jian Yin  (尹健) & Yongqing Wen  (温永清)

  4. State Key Laboratory of Baiyunobo Rare Earth Resource Researches and Comprehensive Utilization, Baotou, 014030, China

    Xiurong Zhang  (张秀荣), Jian Yin  (尹健) & Yongqing Wen  (温永清)

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  1. Yuan Wang  (王元)
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  2. Paula Gawryszewska-Wilczynsk
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  3. Xiurong Zhang  (张秀荣)
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  4. Jian Yin  (尹健)
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  5. Yongqing Wen  (温永清)
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  6. Huanrong Li  (李焕荣)
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Contributions

Wang Y and Li H designed the experiments; Wang Y performed the experiments; Zhang X, Yin J and Wen Y helped with the photovoltaic measurement. Wang Y wrote the paper with support from Li H. Gawryszewska-Wilczynsk P helped modify the grammar. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huanrong Li  (李焕荣).

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Huanrong Li received his PhD degree (2002) at Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the fields of functional materials based on lanthanide complexes. He spent 16 months at the Technical University of Munich under the Humboldt Fellowship. Afterwards, he initiated research on supramolecular chemistry of zeolite with Professor Gion Calzaferri at the University of Bern, Switzerland. In 2006, he was appointed as a full professor at the School of Chemical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology. His research interests and topics include luminescent host-guest functional materials and luminescent soft materials based on ionic liquids and lanthanides.

Yuan Wang received his Master’s degree from Hebei University of Technology, China, in 2017. Currently he is pursuing Doctor’s degree in Hebei University of Technology. His current research focuses on the application of rare earth luminescence materials.

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Wang, Y., Gawryszewska-Wilczynsk, P., Zhang, X. et al. Photovoltaic efficiency enhancement of polycrystalline silicon solar cells by a highly stable luminescent film. Sci. China Mater. 63, 544–551 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-019-1246-5

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