Most photovoltaic (PV) installations utilise heavy conventional glass or polycarbonate panels, and even newly developed thin plastic or metal films for PV cell use may fracture during both construction and application. Textile fabrics, the most widespread flexible materials in everyday use, offer a solution to the need for lightweight, flexible solar PV generators. Solar Textiles: The Flexible Solution for Solar Power is about the incorporation and operation of solar cells on textile fabrics. The combination of textile manufacturing and solar PV cell technology opens up further avenues for both the textile and semiconductor industries. Thus, this book reflects the progressively increasing commercial interest in PV cell technology and the versatility that their integration in textiles provides. Discusses textiles as electrical substrates Explains the photovoltaic effect and associated parameters Offers special consideration of solar cells on textiles Compares fibres and fabrics and how to implement PV activity on a textile Describes manufacturing methods outside of semiconductor technology Includes applications open only to textiles This work is aimed at textile technologists, electronic engineers, solar technologists, civil engineers and designers in building fabrics and architecture.

Solar cells are an option for powering active electronics on textiles, but should be fully integrated to avoid compromising the flexibility and handle of the basic fabric. Photovoltaic (PV) cells conventionally use rigid silicon wafers but there are also thin-film options, although some are sensitive to moisture and oxygen, and others require processing temperatures outside the range of most flexible materials. The coating on textiles is also influenced by the fabric’s texture, elasticity, and surface roughness. The demands of a flexible structure affect the choice of the other parts of PV cells, namely their electrical contacts and any encapsulation layers. The two alternative routes to a textile PV design are—(i) coat the fabric with successive layers needed to make a sandwich device, or (ii) coat individual yarns with these layers and then process them into a fabric, e.g., by weaving.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays are providing an increasing fraction of global electrical demand, with an accelerating rate of new installations. Most of these employ conventional glass-fronted panels, but this type of PV array does not satisfy applications that require a light-weight, flexible PV generator. An option discussed in this article is to consider textiles for such solar cell substrates. As explained in this review, combining the choice of PV cell type with the choice of textile offers alternative structures for flexible PV cells. In particular, the relative advantages and disadvantages are contrasted, either forming PV-coated fibres into a fabric, or coating an already formed fabric with the PV materials. It is shown that combining thin-film amorphous silicon PV technology and woven polyester fabric offers one solution to realizing flexible fabric PV cells, using well-understood coating methods from the textile and semiconductor industries. Finally a few applications are presented that are addressed by this approach.

The growth of hydrogenated sp 3 -phase of diamond on the sp 2 -phase of graphite by Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (MPECVD) is a challenge, primarily because hydrogen etches graphite much faster than the growth rate of diamond. To enhance nucleation of diamond on graphite, we used a plethora of techniques such as plasma etching, ion bombardment, manual scratching, and scratching by ultrasonic agitation. Nanocrystalline and polycrystalline diamond thin-films were grown by MPECVD on the surface of pre-treated or pristine graphite using 1.5, 3.0, and 3.6 kW microwave power. Samples were characterised by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. Species in the gas phase during film deposition were monitored by Optical Emission Spectroscopy. We have found that the surface area covered and the morphology of the diamond films are dependent on the surface pre-treatment. The crystallite size of the films depends on the microwave power used during MPECVD growth. The results of this study establish the protocols for diamond deposition by MPECVD on graphite substrates with a desired crystalline quality based on the pre-treatment of the substrate and the microwave power used during MPECVD. These results are important to modern applications, such as plasma facing materials, in which diamond has shown outstanding performance in contrast to that of graphite.

The application of diamond as a plasma facing material for fusion reactors can be limited by unknown reactions between diamond and the chamber materials transported by the plasma. Transformation of diamond to other structures can cause problems such as contamination of the plasma with loose particles or retention of gases. We have seen that diamond thin films are eroded under hydrogen plasma etching, but if silicon is present the growth of various carbon structures on diamond films is observed. We have produced carbon with different morphologies on diamond films including fibres, sheets with flower-like shapes and tubes and proposed growth mechanisms based on the results of Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Raman Spectroscopy.Sample surfaces contain silicon and are oxidised having COO and CO groups as seen by XPS analysis. Raman analyses revealed a spectrum typical for graphite combined with that from diamond that remains on the surface after hydrogen bombardment. The results of this study show the experimental conditions in which carbon fibres, sheets and tubes are produced under high-power hydrogen etching of diamond films and open the possibility to other applications such as catalysts, sensors and the production of electrodes.

In pursuit of an abundant, inexpensive and stable counter electrode as an alternative to platinum for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), we report a new, low-cost substitute material. Here for the first time, we demonstrate that V2O5 can be used as a counter electrode material in DSSCs. We note that the efficiency of DSSCs with commercial V2O5 and hydrothermal treated V2O5 are upto 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively. The results indicate that, with optimization, V2O5 can be a promising choice to replace platinum from a cost perspective. The innovation of new economical counter electrodes offers a potential way to cut down the industrial costs which is crucial for large-scale production and commercial applications of DSSCs.

In this study, we focus at reducing the fabrication cost of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Sphere-like VO2(M1) polymorph was synthesized by single step facile hydrothermal approach using citric acid as the reducing agent. Phase purity, charge state and surface morphology of the synthesized product were confirmed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy respectively. The electrochemical impedance and cyclic voltammograms of VO2 films indicated a good electrocatalytic activity towards redox reaction of the I-/I-3(-) shuttle. Owing to the low cost, low-temperature processing and good catalytic activity, in this work we propose to use VO2 as a counter electrode to substitute the expensive platinum electrode in DSSCs. By means of VO2 based DSSCs we achieved a fivefold reduction in the cost to energy conversion efficiency ratio. It is expected that with further optimization, VO2 can be exploited as a good candidate for counter electrode in DSSC technology. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this work, we aim to develop a viable, inexpensive and non-toxic material for counter electrodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We employed an ultra-simple synthesis process to deposit MoO3 thin films at low temperature by sol-gel spin coating technique. These MoO3 films showed good transparency. It is predicted that there will be 150 times reduction of precursors cost by realizing MoO3 thin films as a counter electrode in DSSCs compared to commercial Pt. We achieved a device efficiency of about 20 times higher than that of the previous reported values. In summary we develop a simple low cost preparation of MoO3 films with an easily scaled up process along with good device efficiency. This work encourages the development of novel and relatively new materials and paves the way for massive reduction of industrial costs which is a prime step for commercialization of DSSCs.

Diamond thin films have showed outstanding performance when exposed to extreme conditions such as high power plasmas. However there are always concerns about the stability of the diamond structure in the presence of other materials deposited on the film surface by plasma diffusion. It is known that diamond films are etched by hydrogen plasma but in the presence of Si, carbon fibres are formed. In this report we show for the first time the effect of Si on the production of fibres under etching conditions and propose growth mechanisms based on the results of characterisation techniques. Carbon fibres have been synthesised on diamond films and characterised by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. In situ optical emission spectroscopy was performed during the experiments showing different concentration of growing species which may result in the observed variability of fibres growth rate and morphology. Furthermore, fibres varied in size and shape depending on the structure of the diamond films. The surfaces of the fibres contain silicon and are oxidised having COO and CO groups as seen by XPS analysis. Raman analyses revealed a spectrum typical for graphite combined with that from diamond that remains on the surface after hydrogen bombardment. The results of this study show the experimental conditions in which carbon fibres are produced under high hydrogen etching of diamond films and opens the possibility to other applications such as catalysis, sensors and the production of electrodes, since they combine the unmatchable properties of a diamond supporting substrate with the unique properties of carbon fibres.

Integrating photonic microstructures into organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) has been a widely used strategy to improve their light out-coupling efficiency. However, there-is still a need for optical modelling methods which quantitatively characterise the spatial emission pattern of microstructured OLEDs. In this paper, we demonstrate such rigorous calculation using the reciprocity theorem. The calculation of the emission intensity at each direction in the far field can be simplified into only two simple calculations of an incident plane wave propagating from the far field into a single cell of the periodic structure. The emission from microstructured OLED devices with three different grating periods was calculated as a test of the approach, and the calculated results were in good agreement with experiment. This optical modelling method is a useful calculation tool to investigate and control the spatial emission pattern of microstructured OLEDs. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

After a short introduction, the background and operation of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are described. Specific types of PV cells are then discussed in turn, with particular reference to thin-film devices. Strategies for constructing solar PV textiles are critically reviewed. The requirements that make textiles suitable substrates and the strategies for rendering them electrically conductive are surveyed. Following consideration of technological specifications, there is discussion of the manufacture and applications of solar textiles. The chapter ends with some thoughts about the future of solar textiles.

Hybrid photovoltaic cells take the advantages of silicon in charge carrier separation and transport and organic dyes in strong complementary light absorption. Photovoltaic responses from a set of hybrid solar cells based on amorphous silicon and phthalocyanine dyes of double-or triple-layer heterojunction structures were investigated, which were found to have thickness dependence with the organic active layers. It was found that the photocurrent contributions from organic layers are limited, although they are strong light absorbers. The main photocurrent contributions are from the silicon counterpart.

An energy assessment was made for a novel solar cell consisting of thin film silicon on woven polyester. The total energy used in manufacture by this unique combination of textile and semiconductor processes was estimated to be 446 MJ/m(2), lower compared with using more conventional substrates such as glass and polymer film. The authors' substrate choice of woven polyester (53 MJ/m(2)) shows a cut in energy use compared with glass, which requires 150-200 MJ/m(2). Comparison with the energy generated by the device in a typical mid-European operating ambient showed it to have an energy payback time of 1-2 years for an energy conversion efficiency range of 10-5%.