Nanobowl Solar Concentrator Boosts Organic Solar Cell Efficiency

Solar-concentrator technology has long held out promise as a way to increase the conversion efficiency of photovoltaics. Now researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have tackled the tricky issue of creating a solar concentrator for an organic photovoltaic (OPV) by developing a novel "nanobowl" optical concentrator fabricated on low-price aluminum foil. Most OPV devices are based on a design that includes a glass substrate with indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode s. But there are a number of problems with this design, most notably that the solar cells are not flexible and that the ITO electrode compromises the OPV's performance. Aluminum foil substrates have the advantages of excellent conductivity, flexibility, inexpensiveness, and roll-to-roll manufacturing. But it is more difficult to get a uniform organic semiconductor "active layer" on al...

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