Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | EP/I02560X/1 | |
| Title | High efficiency photovoltaic devices based on composite Si-based quantum dots | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics) 100%; | |
| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics) 50%; PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials) 50%; |
|
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 100% | |
| Principal Investigator |
Dr D Mariotti No email address given Nanotechnology and Adv Materials Inst University of Ulster |
|
| Award Type | Standard | |
| Funding Source | EPSRC | |
| Start Date | 01 September 2011 | |
| End Date | 31 August 2016 | |
| Duration | 60 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £1 | |
| Industrial Sectors | No relevance to Underpinning Sectors | |
| Region | Northern Ireland | |
| Programme | Process Environment and Sustainability | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Dr D Mariotti , Nanotechnology and Adv Materials Inst, University of Ulster (100.000%) |
| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | ||
| Abstract | The deployment of next generation, low-cost and high-efficiency solar cells is a multifaceted challenge that requires a multidisciplinary effort and includes fundamental physics, material synthesis/processing, process development/optimization and full device fabrication and characterization. Boosting efficiency and lowering costs can only be achieved with a full-span vision of all device-related aspects. Considerations on materials costs, availability and environmental impact are also mandatory. Although several of the materials that are being proposed today for solar cell devices are very promising, silicon still remains a choice with many pros and progressively less convincing cons. Silicon has played a fundamental role in important technologies for the past decades and has characterized our present time largely contributing to a fast and successful progress in microelectronics among other disciplines. Si success is due to key features such as its availability in nature, suitable electronic/material properties and limited environmental/health concerns. With time, Si-related research and development have added an in-depth scientific knowledge and reliable technological know-how which has consolidated the important role of Si in many applications. More recently, silicon at nanoscale dimensions is revealing a number of very interesting properties. In particular, nanoscale crystalline Si particles (<10 nm in diameter), or silicon quantum dots (SiQDs), exhibit properties that are significantly different to bulk Si due mainly to both quantum confinement and the enhanced influence of the surface. These "new" properties offer very advantageous possibilities for many applications and for PVs in particular. Fundamental and experimental studies on "isolated" SiQDs, as opposed to within a device, have clearly shown that this type of nanosystems are largely affected by surface characteristics and therefore by the immediate surroundings. Therefore, device fabrication and the implementation of a full solar cell design are essential to fully understand the real photovoltaic (PV) potential of SiQDs. Although solar cells based on SiQDs have appeared in the scientific literature and at some extent as a commercial product the efforts are still too limited if compared with the opportunities offered by this type of solar cell and the efficiency so far demonstrated is still too low with device fabrication costs still too high. One of the main limitations is represented by the inability of fabricating the required junction at the SiQD interface which, so far, has been exclusively formed by polymeric bulk-type hetero-junctions. Therefore the device fabrication approach has to be largely improved by using SiQDs that have the necessary surface characteristics for device integration.The overall long-term aim of the proposed research is to fabricate solar cells based on SiQDs that will represent a marketable technology and a solution to provide efficient and low-cost solar energy harvesting. The main research objective is to achieve the fabrication of low-cost and high-efficiency solar energy harvesting devices that make use of composite nanostructures based on SiQDs and that will allow achieving ideal 3-dimensional (3D) interfaces for highly efficient light energy conversion. Therefore, novel solar cell device designs that employ SiQDs composite nanostructures will be proposed, fabricated and characterized | |
| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 03/11/11 | |
