Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.5
2.7
Journals
Applied Sciences
Special Issues
Nanostructured Photodetectors and Photovoltaic Devices
share announcement

Nanostructured Photodetectors and Photovoltaic Devices

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Optics and Lasers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 16791

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Shoou-Jinn Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Interests: optical and electronic devices; semi-conductive materials; nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Teen­-Hang Meen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronic Engineering National Formosa University, Yunlin 632, Taiwan
Interests: IOT devices; photovoltaic devices; STEM education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Stephen D. Prior

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK
Interests: microsystem design; nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanomaterials, which provide one of the greatest potentials for improving the performance and extended capabilities of products in a number of industrial sectors, are a new class of materials, having dimensions in the 1~100 nm range. Nanostructures can be divided into zero-dimensional (0D), one-dimensional (1D), and two-dimensional (2D) based on their shapes. The recent emphasis in the nanomaterials research is put on 1D nanostructures at the expense of 0D and 2D ones, perhaps due to the intriguing possibility of using them in a majority of short-term future applications. The most successful examples are seen in the microelectronic devices, where ‘‘smaller’’ have always meant a greater performance ever since the invention of transistors; for example, a higher density of integration, faster response, lower cost, and less power consumption.

In recent years, applications of nanomaterials on photodetectors and photovoltaic devices have been highly developing fields, due to the flexibility and light weight for daily use, which have the potential to be deployable. Therefore, the fields of nanostructure devices have been the subject of reviews. Thus, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles, as well as review articles, that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the photodetectors and photovoltaic devices with nanostructure. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Fabrications and properties of photodetectors and photovoltaic devices

  • Preparation and applications of nanostructures (nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc.)

  • Recent development on nanostructures with new optical and photoelectric properties

  • Processing techniques of nanostructures for photodetectors and photovoltaic devices

  • Nanostructures for electro-optical applications

Prof. Dr. Shoou-Jinn Chang
Prof. Dr. Teen-Hang Meen
Dr. Stephen D. Prior
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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

  • Nanomaterials and nanostructured

  • Photodetectors

  • Photovoltaic devices

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

8 pages, 5053 KiB  
Article
Trade-off between Photon Management Efficacy and Material Quality in Thin-Film Solar Cells on Nanostructured Substrates of High Aspect Ratio Structures
by Alan H. Chin, Majid Keshavarz and Qi Wang
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(4), 616; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8040616 - 13 Apr 2018
Viewed by 2840
Abstract
Although texturing of the transparent electrode of thin-film solar cells has long been used to enhance light absorption via light trapping, such texturing has involved low aspect ratio features. With the recent development of nanotechnology, nanostructured substrates enable improved light trapping and enhanced [...] Read more.
Although texturing of the transparent electrode of thin-film solar cells has long been used to enhance light absorption via light trapping, such texturing has involved low aspect ratio features. With the recent development of nanotechnology, nanostructured substrates enable improved light trapping and enhanced optical absorption via resonances, a process known as photon management, in thin-film solar cells. Despite the progress made in the development of photon management in thin-film solar cells using nanostructures substrates, the structural integrity of the thin-film solar cells deposited onto such nanostructured substrates is rarely considered. Here, we report the observation of the reduction in the open circuit voltage of amorphous silicon solar cells deposited onto a nanostructured substrate with increasing areal number density of high aspect ratio structures. For a nanostructured substrate with the areal number density of such nanostructures increasing in correlation with the distance from one edge of the substrate, a correlation between the open circuit voltage reduction and the increase of the areal number density of high aspect ratio nanostructures of the front electrode of the small-size amorphous silicon solar cells deposited onto different regions of the substrate with graded nanostructure density indicates the effect of the surface morphology on the material quality, i.e., a trade-off between photon management efficacy and material quality. This observed trade-off highlights the importance of optimizing the morphology of the nanostructured substrate to ensure conformal deposition of the thin-film solar cell. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Photodetectors and Photovoltaic Devices)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 5940 KiB  
Article
Oxygen Vacancy-Mediated ZnO Nanoparticle Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methylene Blue
by Qiuping Zhang, Ming Xu, Biao You, Qin Zhang, Huan Yuan and Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(3), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8030353 - 28 Feb 2018
Cited by 101 | Viewed by 7831
Abstract
ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by deoxidizing ZnO powder in a vacuum drying process. This process reduces the size of the NPs and increases the concentration of oxygen vacancies on their surfaces. ZnO NPs with sufficient oxygen vacancies are highly effective for the [...] Read more.
ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by deoxidizing ZnO powder in a vacuum drying process. This process reduces the size of the NPs and increases the concentration of oxygen vacancies on their surfaces. ZnO NPs with sufficient oxygen vacancies are highly effective for the photodecomposition of methylene blue (MB) dye in water under ultraviolet irradiation. The MB degradation efficiency exceeds 99 percent after 50 min of light irradiation, and the catalytic property of the NPs remains stable over several complete degradation cycles. It is revealed that the concentration of oxygen vacancies on the surface, and the photocatalytic activity, are both higher for smaller NPs. Oxygen vacancies reduce the recombination rate of photo-generated charge carriers by capturing the electrons and hence, improve the efficiency of redox reactions. In addition, a smaller particle size leads to a larger specific surface area and a higher photonic efficiency for the ZnO NPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Photodetectors and Photovoltaic Devices)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1663 KiB  
Article
All-Carbon Electrodes for Flexible Solar Cells
by Zexia Zhang, Ruitao Lv, Yi Jia, Xin Gan, Hongwei Zhu and Feiyu Kang
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(2), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8020152 - 23 Jan 2018
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5248
Abstract
Transparent electrodes based on carbon nanomaterials have recently emerged as new alternatives to indium tin oxide (ITO) or noble metal in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their attractive advantages, such as long-term stability, environmental friendliness, high conductivity, and low cost. However, it is [...] Read more.
Transparent electrodes based on carbon nanomaterials have recently emerged as new alternatives to indium tin oxide (ITO) or noble metal in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their attractive advantages, such as long-term stability, environmental friendliness, high conductivity, and low cost. However, it is still a challenge to apply all-carbon electrodes in OPVs. Here, we report our efforts to develop all-carbon electrodes in organic solar cells fabricated with different carbon-based materials, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene films synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Flexible and semitransparent solar cells with all-carbon electrodes are successfully fabricated. The best power conversion efficiency achieved for the devices with all-carbon electrodes is 0.63%, comparable to the reported performance of OPVs using pristine CVD graphene films as anodes on rigid substrates (glass). Moreover, the current densities of as-obtained devices are comparable to those assembled with all-carbon active layers and standard electrodes (e.g., ITO and metal), which indicates that the all-carbon electrodes made of CNT and graphene films are suitably effective for carrier collection and extraction. Our results present the feasibility and potential of applying all-carbon electrodes based on graphitic nanomaterials in next-generation carbon-based photovoltaics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Photodetectors and Photovoltaic Devices)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop