Publications related to Thermal Drawing of Polymer Nano-composites: Fluid Dynamic Analysis and Application to Novel Functional Fibers

Stress tolerance of lightweight glass-free PV modules for vehicle integration

Christophe Ballif, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Antonin Faes, Jacques Levrat, Matthieu Despeisse, Gianluca Cattaneo, Fahradin Mujovi, Umang Bhupatrai Desai

Electric vehicles (EVs) currently dominate the sales in the automotive market. A big leap in this market can be made by developing a photovoltaic product that can be integrated to an EV, as it can boost the driving range of the EV while reducing the chargi ...

Edp Sciences S A2024

Advanced Manufacturing and Characterization of Building-Integrated Photovoltaic Modules

Alejandro Borja Block

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is necessary for global decarbonization. However, one of the challenges of the technology is that its land use may conflict with other space demands. Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) is a solution to efficiently use the ...

EPFL2024

Investigating Non-equilibrium Physics in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors and Quantum Materials via Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Hui-Yuan Chen

This thesis uses femtosecond laser spectroscopy in studying strong correlation in condensed matters that are pertinent to future technology: a wide bandgap perovskite and a quantum material, with the employment of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy in th ...

EPFL2024

A comprehensive physical model for the sensitivity of silicon heterojunction photovoltaic modules to water ingress

Christophe Ballif, Alessandro Francesco Aldo Virtuani, Luca Gnocchi, Olatz Arriaga Arruti

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ)-solar modules-when encapsulated with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)-are known to be extremely sensitive to water ingress. The reason for this is, however, not clear. Here, we explain the root causes of this degradation mechanism ...

Cell Press2024

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photocatalysis: Material, Photonic and Electronic Effects

Fateme Kiani Shahvandi

Plasmonic photochemistry has a large potential to replace energy-intensive chemical processes with low-temperature, low-pressure light-driven chemical reactions. Plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising photocatalysts with exceptional and tunable ...

EPFL2024

Elimination of buried interfacial voids for efficient perovskite solar cells

Bo Chen, Bin Ding, Yan Liu, Xianfu Zhang

Establishing optimal interfacial contact is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, formation of voids at buried interface of perovskite films often hinders this critical objective. Our investigation reveals that the ...

Elsevier2024

Durable Perovskite Solar Cells with 24.5% Average Efficiency: The Role of Rigid Conjugated Core in Molecular Semiconductors

Michael Graetzel, Shaik Mohammed Zakeeruddin, Peng Wang, Felix Thomas Eickemeyer, Ming Ren

Efficient and robust n-i-p perovskite solar cells necessitate superior organic hole-transport materials with both mechanical and electronic prowess. Deciphering the structure-property relationship of these materials is crucial for practical perovskite sola ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Identification and Mitigation of Degradation Mechanisms Induced by Heat and Light in NiOx-based Perovskite Solar Cells

Marion Solange Madeleine Dussouillez

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer an attractive solution to increase the efficiency of PV panels via perovskite/silicon tandems thanks to their potential cost-effectiveness and high efficiency. In inverted PSC architecture (p-i-n), commonly used hole con ...

EPFL2024

Supramolecular interactions using β-cyclodextrin in controlling perovskite solar cell performance

Jun Ho Yum, Kevin Sivula, Jiyoun Seo, Parnian Ferdowsi

In the context of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), enhancing device performance often involves adding a small excess of lead iodide (PbI2) to the precursor solution. However, the presence of unreacted PbI2 can lead to accelerated degradation compromising lon ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2024

Reliability and Long-term Performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Modules

Ebrar Özkalay

Solar photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most competitive renewable energy technologies in order to meet the increasing global energy demand and decrease CO2 emissions by competing effectively with fossil fuels. One of the important applications of PV energy ...

EPFL2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Structural divergence of molecular hole selective materials for viable p-i-n perovskite photovoltaics: a comprehensive review

Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Peng Gao, Paramaguru Ganesan

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have garnered significant attention within the photovoltaic research community due to their remarkable progress in just one decade. Among the device configurations, the p-i-n structured PSC offers several advantages, including ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2024

Encapsulation strategies for mechanical impact and damp heat reliability improvement of lightweight photovoltaic modules towards vehicle-integrated applications

Fabiana Lisco

Lightweight modules are essential for next-generation vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) applications, such as solar-powered cars, allowing integration of solar cells beyond the roof, and on the hood, boot and body panels, and thereby extending the dri ...

Elsevier2024

Processing factors affecting roughness, optical and mechanical properties of nanocellulose films for optoelectronics

Tiffany Abitbol

This work aims to understand how nanocellulose (NC) processing can modify the key characteristics of NC films to align with the main requirements for high-performance optoelectronics. The performance of these devices relies heavily on the light transmittan ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Shortwave Infrared-Sensitive, Narrowband Organic Upconversion Devices with a Gain

Wei-Hsu Hu

Sensing and imaging of light in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range is increasingly used in various fields, including bio-imaging, remote sensing, and semiconductor process control. SWIR-sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) are promising because organic ...

EPFL2024

Tracking deep-level defects in degrading perovskite solar cells with a multifactorial approach

Vivek Subramanian

In this work, we provide a mechanistic understanding of the degradation of perovskite solar cells in operation by focusing on methylammonium lead triiodide (CH3NH3PbI3 or MAPbI3) and tracking the evolution of electronic defects via photo-induced current tr ...

Elsevier2024

Photo-doping of spiro-OMeTAD for highly stable and efficient perovskite solar cells

Michael Graetzel, Jacques-Edouard Moser, Etienne Christophe Socie, Aaron Tomas Terpstra, George Cameron Fish, Kai Zhu

A widely used component of high-efficiency perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is the molecular hole-transport material (HTM) spiro-OMeTAD. This organic solid needs to be p-doped to acquire sufficient hole conductivity. However, the conventional doping method us ...

2024

Highly anisotropic carbon fiber electrodes for DEAs and their dynamic non-monotonic conductive properties

Yves Perriard, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Markus Koenigsdorff

A common method for creating compliant electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and soft sensors is to incorporate electrically conductive carbon particles into a polymer matrix. However, using unidirectional aligned carbon fibers instead not o ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

Font Side Solutions for c-Si Solar Cells with High-Temperature Passivating Contacts

Ezgi Genç

In this work, we studied the potential of using thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for two main purposes: introducing an n-type passivating contact at the front of a TOPCon solar cell, or simplifying the fabrication o ...

EPFL2024

A thermotropic liquid crystal enables efficient and stable perovskite solar modules

Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Bin Ding, Jian Xu, Yong Ding, Cheng Liu

Perovskite solar cells have seen impressive progress in performance and stability, yet maintaining efficiency while scaling area remains a challenge. Here we find that additives commonly used to passivate large-area perovskite films often co-precipitate du ...

Nature Portfolio2024