Solar energy articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  24 October 2016 | Open Access

  In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells

  High performance CdTe thin film solar cells typically require a chloride activation treatment. Here, Majoret al. show that the main effect of the most effective chloride-based treatments is chloride accumulation at grain boundaries and that it results in improved open circuit voltages.

  • J. D. Major
  • , M. Al Turkestani
  •  & K. Durose

• Article
  20 October 2016 | Open Access

  Thermally enhanced photoluminescence for heat harvesting in photovoltaics

  In photovoltaics, sub-band gap energy photons can be harvested using up-conversion strategies. Here, the authors show that the thermally enhanced up-converted photoluminescence results in enhanced energy conversion, for an accessible temperature range and with a broad range of incident photon energy.

  • Assaf Manor
  • , Nimrod Kruger
  •  & Carmel Rotschild

• Article
  11 October 2016 | Open Access

  Theory of highly efficient multiexciton generation in type-II nanorods

  Multiple exciton generation could help limit thermalization losses in solar cells, but the efficiency of the process is still limited. Here, the authors show by atomistic calculations that type-II interfaces in nanostructures along with a change in exciton cooling rate favour multiple exciton generation.

  • Hagai Eshet
  • , Roi Baer
  •  & Eran Rabani

• Article
  05 October 2016 | Open Access

  Enhancing stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells with crosslinkable silane-functionalized and doped fullerene

  Perovskite solar cells reach high efficiencies but their stability remains a challenge. Here, Bai et al. functionalize the fullerene-based transport layer with hydrophobic and crosslinkable molecules to prepare devices reaching 19% efficiency and degrading by 10% over a month in ambient conditions.

  • Yang Bai
  • , Qingfeng Dong
  •  & Jinsong Huang

• Article
  07 September 2016 | Open Access

  Upscaling of integrated photoelectrochemical water-splitting devices to large areas

  The realization of photoelectrochemical water splitting requires the upscale of associated technologies. Here, the authors report a scalable design based on independent photovoltaic and electrochemical silicon thin-film modules and assess its solar hydrogen generation performance.

  • Bugra Turan
  • , Jan-Philipp Becker
  •  & Stefan Haas

• Article
  02 September 2016 | Open Access

  The fate of electron–hole pairs in polymer:fullerene blends for organic photovoltaics

  Charge generation and transport are crucial to the performance of organic solar cells, but the mechanism remains controversial. Causa’ et al. show that the phase morphology of polymer:fullerene blends determines the exciton dissociation at femtoseconds, although the spatial separation can occur at picoseconds.

  • Martina Causa'
  • , Jelissa De Jonghe-Risse
  •  & Natalie Banerji

• Article
  27 July 2016 | Open Access

  Structural and compositional dependence of the CdTe_xSe_1−x alloy layer photoactivity in CdTe-based solar cells

  Using a CdTe_xSe_1−x alloy in CdTe solar cells leads to better performances. Here, Poplawsky et al. show that the photoactive properties of the alloy depend on its chemical composition and structural properties, and derive a phase diagram to further optimize alloy growth for photovoltaic devices.

  • Jonathan D. Poplawsky
  • , Wei Guo
  •  & Yanfa Yan