• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.421-426
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• 2024

Ru dye (Z-907) is a crucial photosensitizing material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To enhance the utilization of Ru dye's photosensitizing properties in bulk heterojunction solar cells, a method was developed to synthesize phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) nanoparticles that are chemically linked to Ru dye. PCBM contains a methoxy (-OCH₃) group, whereas Ru dye incorporates a carboxyl group (-COOH) within its molecular structure. By exploiting these complementary functional groups, a successful bond between Ru dye and PCBM was established through an anhydride functional group. The coupling of PCBM with Ru dye results in a modification of the energy levels, yielding lower LUMO (3.8 eV) and HOMO (6.1 eV) levels, compared with the LUMO (3.0 eV) and HOMO (5.2 eV) levels of Ru dye alone. This configuration potentially facilitates efficient electron transfer from Ru dye to PCBM, alongside promoting hole transfer from Ru dye to the conducting polymer. Consequently, the bulk heterojunction solar cells incorporating this Ru dye-PCBM configuration demonstrate superior performance, with an open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.62 V, short circuit current (J_sc) of 0.63 mA cm^-2, fill factor (FF) of 65.6%, and a photovoltaic conversion efficiency (η) of 0.25%.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.2200-2206
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• 2012

One-dimensional $TiO_2$ array grown on optically transparent electrode holds a promise as a photoelectrode for photoelectrochemical water splitting; however, its crystal structure is rutile, imposing constraints on the potent use of this nanostructure. To address this issue, a heterojunction with type-II band alignment was fabricated using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. One-dimensional core/shell structured $TiO_2$/ZnO heterojunction was superior to $TiO_2$ in the photoelectrochemical water splitting because of better charge separation and more favorable Fermi level. The heterojunction also possesses better light scattering property, which turned out to be beneficial even for improving the photoelectrochemical performance of semiconductor-sensitized solar cell.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.267-275
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• 2015

In this paper, ZnO films were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and CdS films were deposited using chemical bath deposition (CBD) to form ZnO/CdS heterojunction. More accurate mapping of band arrangement of the ZnO/CdS heterojunction has been performed by analyzing its electrical and optical characteristics in depth by various methods including transmittance, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). The optical bandgap energies ($E_g$) of ZnO and CdS were 3.27 eV and 2.34 eV, respectively. UPS was capable of extracting the ionization potential energies (IPEs) of the materials, which turned out to be 8.69 eV and 7.30 eV, respectively. The electron affinity (EA) values of ZnO and CdS calculated from IPE and $E_g$ were 5.42 eV and 4.96 eV, respectively. Energy-band structures of the heterojunction could be accurately drawn from these parameters taking the conduction band offset (CBO) into account, which will substantially help acquisition of the full band structures of the thin films in the CIGS solar-cell device and contribute to the optimal device designs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.431-431
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• 2008

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.432-432
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• 2008

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.560-560
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• 2006

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.324-324
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2012

Polymer solar cells utilize bulk heterojunction (BHJ) type photo-active layer in which the electron donating polymer and electron accepting $C_{60}$ derivatives are blended. We found there is significant charge recombination at the interface between the BHJ active layer and electrode. The charge recombination at the interface was effectively reduced by inserting wide band gap inorganic interfacial layer, which resulted in efficiency and stability enhancement of BHJ polymer solar cell.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.491-496
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• 2011

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in the antireflection layer and current spreading layer of heterojunction solar cells should have excellent optical and electrical properties. Furthermore, TCOs need a high work function over 5.2 eV to prevent the effect of emitter band-bending caused by the difference in work function between emitter and TCOs. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) film is a highly promising material as a TCO due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. However, ITO films have a low work function of about 4.8 eV. This low work function of ITO films leads to deterioration of the conversion efficiency of solar cells. In this work, ITO films with various Zn contents of 0, 6.9, 12.7, 28.8, and 36.6 at.% were fabricated by a co-sputtering method using ITO and AZO targets at room temperature. The optical and electrical properties of Zn-doped ITO thin films were analyzed. Then, silicon heterojunction solar cells with these films were fabricated. The 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO films show the highest hall mobility of 35.71 $cm^2$/Vsec. With increasing Zn content over 12.7, the hall mobility decreases. Although a small addition of Zn content increased the work function, further addition of Zn content over 12.7 at.% led to decreasing electrical properties because of the decrease in the carrier concentration and hall mobility. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO thin films showed the highest conversion efficiency of 15.8%.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.162-167
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• 2013

An epitaxial layer structure for heterojunction p-InGaP/N-InAlGaP solar cell has proposed. Simulation for current density-voltage characteristics has been performed on p-InGaP/N-InAlGaP structure and the simulation results were compared with p-InGaP/p-GaAs/N-InAlGaP structure and homogeneous InGaP pn junction structure. The simulation result showed that the maximum output power and fill factor have greatly increased by replacing n-InGaP with N-InAlGaP. The thicknesses of p-InGaP and n-InAlGaP were optimized for the epitaxial layer structure of p-InGaP/N-InAlGaP.