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New zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc-TDA), peripherally functionalized with donor-acceptor conjugates was synthesized, and its optical, thermal, electrochemical, and photovoltaic properties were studied. The black ZnPc-TDA exhibited both excellent solubility in common organic solvents, and broad absorption covering the range 300-900 nm. The photovoltaic devices with the configuration of ITO/PEDOT-PSS/ZnPc-TDA:PCBM/LiF/Al produced short circuit current densities of 2.26 mA/cm(2), the open circuit voltage of 0.68 V and power conversion efficiency of 0.4% under AM1.5G illumination. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

It is critical and challenging to develop high performance transition metal phosphides (TMPs) electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to address fossil energy shortages. Herein, we report the synthesis of Co2P embedded in N-doped porous carbon (Co2P@N-C) via a facile one-step strategy. The obtained catalyst exhibits a lower overpotential of 352 mV for OER at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 84.6 mV dec−1, with long-time reliable stability. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of Co2P@N-C can be mainly owed to the synergistic effect between the Co2P and highly conductive N-C substrate, which not only affords rich exposed active sites but also promotes faster charge transfer, thus significantly promoting OER process. This work presents a promising and industrially applicable synthetic strategy for the rational design of high performance nonnoble metal electrocatalysts with enhanced OER performance.

A hybrid structure constructed by uniformly anchoring crystalline Ni2P cocatalyst on 1D CdS nanorods exhibits extraordinarily efficient photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution in water (rate of 1,200 μmol h−1 mg−1 and TOF of 36,400 h−1 per mol Ni2P) under visible light irradiation.

Abstract In this paper, silicon rich polycrystalline silicon carbide (poly-SiCx) thin films were prepared for passivating contact of silicon solar cells. The effect of different carbon doping ratios R [methane flow (sccm)/silane flow (sccm)] and the annealing temperatures on the passivation quality was investigated. The lifetime test showed that, given a lower annealing temperature, the passivation quality of poly-SiCx thin films was very poor at R over 0.2, and it can be improved by elevating the annealing temperature. The effective lifetime of over 1.8 ms can be obtained with implied open-circuit voltages (iVoc) of 715 mV and saturated dark current (J0) of 18 fA/cm2. The microstructure and optical property of poly-SiCx films was studied by Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The results showed that the incorporation of carbon lowered the crystalline fraction of poly-SiCx and a higher annealing temperature was needed to achieve high crystallinity. The optical band gap of poly-SiCx was widened with increase in R, and got up to 2.3eV when R was 0.4. A proof-of-concept top/rear TOPCon solar cells, featuring a N+-poly-SiCx (R = 0.2) front contact, was fabricated to demonstrate the potential of this SiCx passivation contact. The decrease in the parasitic absorption of light at the front side resulted in higher photogenerated current. And the conversion efficiency of 20.17% was achieved.

Isolated cobalt atoms with CoN4configuration are decorated into a multichannel carbon matrix for efficient electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction.

Abstract Cu2BaSn(S,Se)4 (CBTSSe) solar cells are emerging photovoltaic devices due to their high theoretical efficiencies of ~31%, environment-friendly and earth-abundant composition, low density of non-recombination defects, and so on. However, the record efficiency of CBTSSe solar cell is only 5.2%, showing the importance of studying their performance via numerical analysis to further enhance their practical efficiencies. In this paper, the effect of absorber and buffer layers on performances of Cu2BaSnS4 (CBTS) solar cells are firstly systematically studied via the SCAPS-1D software to provide a platform for the study of the effect of MoS2 interlayer on the performances of CBTS solar cells. The highest PCE of CBTS solar cell with a 30 nm CdS buffer layer is 11.87%. The PCE of CBTS solar cell with a 0.8 μm CBTS absorb layer is 12.51%, indicating that the CBTS solar cell is a potential low-cost solar cell due to its large optical absorption coefficient (α > 104 cm−1). The efficiency of CBTS solar cell is improved to 16.47% when the carrier concentration of CBTS is 1016 cm−3. The relationship between the performance of solar cell and the band gap, thickness, donor concentration, acceptor concentration of MoS2 interlayer is systematically investigated on the basis of the optimized efficiency. It is found that MoS2 interlayer plays an important role in the performance of CBTS solar cell. The p-type MoS2 has a beneficial effect on the efficiency improvement while the n-type MoS2 has a negative effect on the efficiency enhancement. The highest PCE of CBTS solar cell is as high as 18.28% when the thickness and the acceptor concentration of MoS2 are 4 nm and 1019 cm−3, respectively. Our simulation result provides a promising research direction to further improve the actual efficiency of the CBTS solar cell.

Ferrocene was introduced as a solid additive in organic solar cells (OSCs). The use of ferrocene provides PM6:Y6 based device with improved performance and stability, demonstrating its great potential in the fabrication of efficient and stable OSCs.

A new small molecule acceptor, Y18, was designed and synthesized. Over 17% efficiency was obtained with single junction solar cells based on Y18.

AbstractOrganic solar cells based on semiconducting polymers and small molecules have attracted considerable attention in the last two decades. Moreover, the power conversion efficiencies for solution‐processed solar cells containing A–π–D–π–A‐type small molecules and fullerenes have reached 11%. However, the method for designing high‐performance, photovoltaic small molecules still remains unclear. In this review, recent studies on A–π–D–π–A electron‐donating small molecules for organic solar cells are introduced. Moreover, the relationships between molecular properties and device performances are summarized, from which inspiration for the future design of high performance organic solar cells may be obtained.