Transparent conductive oxide films for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films of various thicknesses and dopant levels is reported. The deposited coatings are used to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells, which exhibited reproducible power conversion efficiencies in excess of 10%. No surface texturing of FTOs or any additional treatment of dye-covered films is applied. In comparison, the use of commercial FTOs showed a lower cell efficiency of 7.11%. Detailed analysis showed that the cell efficiencies do not simply depend on the resistivity of FTOs but instead rely on a combination of carrier concentration, thickness, and surface roughness properties

Recent progress and remaining challenges in organometallic halides based perovskite solar cells

The efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), based on thin film organometallic halides/mixed-halides, has rapidly increased from 3.8% in 2009 to 20.1% by 2015. Enhanced efficiency as well as the flexibility in material development and the structure are the primary reasons for their emergence in the photovoltaic market. Inherently distinctive properties of perovskite materials are mainly responsible for the enhanced efficiency. A variety of different techniques and device architecture have been employed for the fabrication of high performance perovskite solar cells. As many parameters can be optimized, the efficiency of these devices can be further improved. This review highlights the intrinsic properties of lead halide perovskites and the recent progress in the application of these novel materials in producing efficient solar cells. Key factors affecting their solar performance are also highlighted. Scope and the need for lead free halide perovskites are also discussed

Energy, exergy and environmental analyses of biomass gasifier combined integrated plant

Yılmaz, Fatih ( Aksaray, Yazar )The fundamental purpose of this chapter is to examine a novel renewable energy supported combined plant. The suggested chapter occurs with biomass gasifier unit, gas turbine system, Rankine cycle, single-effect absorption cycle, hydrogen generation unit, dryer cycle, and hot-water production unit. This chapter is designed and developed for useful outputs, such as heating, cooling, electricity, hydrogen, drying and hot water with a single biomass energy input. In this context, detailed energy and exergy efficiency, and also environmental effect analyses are carried out with Engineering Equation Solver software. The effects of environment and gasification temperatures and biomass mass flow rate changes on the plant performance and on carbon emissions are investigated and presented as graphs. Results display that the energetic and exergetic efficiency of integrated plant are found as 63.84 and 59.26%. Also, the overall hydrogen generation and exergy destruction rate are 0.068 kg/s and 52,529 kW, respectively