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Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition
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Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2025 | Viewed by 4112

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Wisz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Rzeszów, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland
Interests: development and application of thin-film solar cells; PVD technology; characterization of PV cells and devices; flexible organic semiconductors; green energy systems and energy management; technology transfer and startups development; clusters
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mirosław Łabuz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Physics, University of Rzeszów, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland
Interests: semiconductors; thin-film solar cells; renewable energy; environmental protection; spin systems; mathematical physics
Prof. Dr. Lyubomyr Nykyruy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Physics and Chemistry of Solids Department, Physical-Technical Faculty, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 76018 Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Interests: semiconductor material science; thin films; carrier scattering, band structure; nanoinclusions; surface; renewable energy; photovoltaic; thermoelectricity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rostyslav Yavorskyi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Physics and Chemistry of Solids Department, Physical-Technical Faculty, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 76018 Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Interests: technology of obtaining thin films; solar cells; semiconductors; optical properties; morphology; materials science; nanowire; simulation; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are inviting submissions for a Special Issue of Materials on “Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures”.

Photovoltaic devices are important renewable energy resources with the potential to solve the global energy crises. Their use could reduce the consumption of fossil fuels for electricity production. The basic advantages of solar cells including the availability of solar radiation energy, that they have no negative impact on the environment, and that they are long-lasting and energy is produced at the consumption site.

Currently, silicon solar cells are the most popular devices for converting light energy into electricity. However, thin-film solar cells, which are based on new materials, offer a competitive, efficient, and cost-effective alternative. These new solutions are expected to replace traditional silicon cells.

Thin-film solar cells have many advantages compared with traditional silicon photovoltaic devices. A main advantage of thin-film solar cells is their thickness. The layers are up to 200 times thinner than the layers of traditional silicon solar cells. Thin-film solar cells have great potential to reduce both their material consumption and production costs. They are lighter in weight, so they can be deposited on flexible substrates and integrated with many devices.

Therefore, we welcome review and research papers on the development of thin-film photovoltaic materials and solar cells. Suitable topics include experimental and theoretical findings related to thin-film photovoltaic materials, structures, devices, fabrication techniques, and characterization.

The scope of the Special Issue includes but is not limited to the following:

  • Thin-film solar cells;
  • Perovskites and perovskite solar cells;
  • Dye-sensitized solar cells;
  • Nano-structured PV cells;
  • Quantum dot solar cells;
  • Thermophotovoltaic generators;
  • Organic PV materials and devices;
  • New materials for photovoltaic structures;
  • New concepts and device architectures for next generation solar cells;
  • Nanotechnology for improvement of PV devices;
  • New materials and contact concepts.

Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Wisz
Dr. Mirosław Łabuz
Prof. Dr. Lyubomyr Nykyruy
Dr. Rostyslav Yavorskyi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • new materials for photovoltaics
  • thin-film solar cells
  • solar cell device physics
  • solar cell materials structure
  • multilayers solar cell
  • photovoltaic devices and systems
  • photovoltaic structure efficiency
  • photovoltaic structure time stability

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 8273 KiB  
Article
Gold-Coated Temperature Optical Fiber Sensor Based on a Mach–Zehnder Interferometer for Photovoltaic Monitoring
by Bartlomiej Guzowski, Mateusz Lakomski, Krzysztof Peczek, Lukasz Ruta and Maciej Sibinski
Materials 2025, 18(8), 1818; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18081818 - 16 Apr 2025
Viewed by 337
Abstract
The development of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on tapered optical fiber for temperature sensing applications is presented. Two tapers, 24 mm apart, were fabricated on SMF-28e+ using the fusion splicer. The optical structures were coated with a 100 nm layer of gold. The [...] Read more.
The development of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on tapered optical fiber for temperature sensing applications is presented. Two tapers, 24 mm apart, were fabricated on SMF-28e+ using the fusion splicer. The optical structures were coated with a 100 nm layer of gold. The influence of the gold deposition on the temperature sensitivity of the fabricated sensors is presented. The sensor was characterized in O-, S-, C-, and L-bands in a temperature range of 0–70 °C. The highest temperature sensitivity of 72 pm/°C with R2 = 0.9974 was obtained for the gold-coated sensor. During the investigation, the average transmission loss was low and did not exceed 7 dB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition)
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16 pages, 36325 KiB  
Article
Effect of Annealing in Air on the Structural and Optical Properties and Efficiency Improvement of TiO2/CuxO Solar Cells Obtained via Direct-Current Reactive Magnetron Sputtering
by Grzegorz Wisz, Maciej Sibiński, Mirosław Łabuz, Piotr Potera, Dariusz Płoch, Mariusz Bester and Rostyslav Yavorskyi
Materials 2025, 18(4), 888; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18040888 - 18 Feb 2025
Viewed by 534
Abstract
In this study, four various titanium dioxide/cuprum oxide (TiO2/CuxO) photovoltaic structures deposited on glass/indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates using the direct-current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering technique were annealed in air. In our previous work, the deposition parameters for different [...] Read more.
In this study, four various titanium dioxide/cuprum oxide (TiO2/CuxO) photovoltaic structures deposited on glass/indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates using the direct-current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering technique were annealed in air. In our previous work, the deposition parameters for different buffer layer configurations were first optimized to enhance cell fabrication efficiency. In this paper, the effects of post-deposition annealing at 150 °C in air on the optical properties and I-V characteristics of the prepared structures were examined. As a result, significant changes in optical properties and a meaningful improvement in performance in comparison to unannealed cells were observed. Air annealing led to an increase in the reflection coefficient of the TiO2 layer for three out of four structures. A similar increase in the reflection of the CuxO layer occurred after heating for two out of four structures. Transmission of the TiO2/CuxO photovoltaic structures also increased after heating for three out of four samples. For two structures, changes in both transmission and reflection resulted in higher absorption. Moreover, annealing the as-deposited structures resulted in a maximum relative increase in open-circuit voltage (Voc) by 294% and an increase in short-circuit current (Isc) by 1200%. The presented article gives some in-depth analysis of these reported changes in character and origin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition)
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21 pages, 4985 KiB  
Article
DSSCs Sensitized with Phenothiazine Derivatives Containing 1H-Tetrazole-5-acrylic Acid as an Anchoring Unit
by Muhammad Faisal Amin, Paweł Gnida, Jan Grzegorz Małecki, Sonia Kotowicz and Ewa Schab-Balcerzak
Materials 2024, 17(24), 6116; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17246116 - 14 Dec 2024
Viewed by 706
Abstract
Phenothiazine-based photosensitizers bear the intrinsic potential to substitute various expensive organometallic dyes owing to the strong electron-donating nature of the former. If coupled with a strong acceptor unit and the length of N-alkyl chain is appropriately chosen, they can easily produce high efficiency [...] Read more.
Phenothiazine-based photosensitizers bear the intrinsic potential to substitute various expensive organometallic dyes owing to the strong electron-donating nature of the former. If coupled with a strong acceptor unit and the length of N-alkyl chain is appropriately chosen, they can easily produce high efficiency levels in dye-sensitized solar cells. Here, three novel D-A dyes containing 1H-tetrazole-5-acrylic acid as an acceptor were synthesized by varying the N-alkyl chain length at its phenothiazine core and were exploited in dye-sensitized solar cells. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the synthesized phenothiazine derivatives exhibited behavior characteristic of molecular glasses, with glass transition and melting temperatures in the range of 42–91 and 165–198 °C, respectively. Based on cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry measurements, it was evident that their lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) (−3.01–−3.14 eV) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) (−5.28–−5.33 eV) values were fitted to the TiO2 conduction band and the redox energy of I−/I3− in electrolyte, respectively. The experimental results were supported by density functional theory, which was also utilized for estimation of the adsorption energy of the dyes on the TiO2 and its size. Finally, the compounds were tested in dye-sensitized solar cells, which were characterized based on current–voltage measurements. Additionally, for the compound giving the best photovoltaic response, the efficiency of the DSSCs was optimized by a photoanode modification involving the use of cosensitization and coadsorption approaches and the introduction of a blocking layer. Subsequently, two types of tandem dye-sensitized solar cells were constructed, which resulted in an increase in photovoltaic efficiency to 6.37%, as compared to DSSCs before modifications, with a power conversion value of 2.50%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition)
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Review

Jump to: Research

33 pages, 2647 KiB  
Review
A Review of Simulation Tools for Thin-Film Solar Cells
by Lizbeth Salgado-Conrado, Carlos Álvarez-Macías and Bernardo Reyes-Durán
Materials 2024, 17(21), 5213; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17215213 - 25 Oct 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1629
Abstract
Unlike current silicon-based photovoltaic technology, the development of last-generation thin-film solar cells has been marked by groundbreaking advancements in new materials and novel structures to increase performance and lower costs. However, physically building each new proposal to evaluate the device’s efficiency can involve [...] Read more.
Unlike current silicon-based photovoltaic technology, the development of last-generation thin-film solar cells has been marked by groundbreaking advancements in new materials and novel structures to increase performance and lower costs. However, physically building each new proposal to evaluate the device’s efficiency can involve unnecessary effort and time. Numerical simulation tools provide a solution by allowing researchers to predict and optimize solar cell performance without physical testing. This paper reviews thirteen of the main numerical simulation tools for thin-film solar cells, including SCAPS, AMPS, AFORS-HET, ASPIN3, GPVDM, SESAME, SILVACO, SENTAURUS, and ADEPT. This review evaluates each tool’s features, modeling methods, numerical approaches, and application contexts. The findings reveal notable differences in material modeling, numerical accuracy, cost, and accessibility among the tools. Each tool’s strengths and limitations in simulating thin-film solar cells are highlighted. This study emphasizes the necessity of selecting suitable simulation tools based on specific research requirements. It provides a comparative analysis to assist researchers in choosing the most effective software for optimizing thin-film solar cells, contributing to advancements in photovoltaic technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Solar Cell Materials and Structures—Second Edition)
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