A doubling of the photocurrent due to light trapping is demonstrated by the combination of silver nanoparticles with a highly reflective back scatterer fabricated by Snow Globe Coating on the rear of a 2 μm polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cell. The binder free high refractive index titania particles can overcome light losses due to transmission. Modelling indicates that adding plasmonic nanoparticles to the back scatterer widens the angular distribution of scattered light such that over 80% of long wavelength light is scattered outside the Si/air loss cone and trapped in the cell, compared to 30% for the titania alone.
Progressive chemical .delithiation of commercially available lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) showed consecutive changes in the crystal properties. Rietveld refinement of high resolution X-ray and neutron diffraction revealed an increased lattice parameter c and a reduced lattice parameter a for chemically delithiated samples. Using electron microscopy we have also followed the changes in the texture of the samples towards what we have found is a critical layer stoichiometry of about LixCoO2 with x=1/3 that causes the grains to exfoliate. The pattern of etches by delithiation suggests that unrelieved strain fields may produce chemical activity.
Graphical abstractResearch highlights▶ Core-shell battery material preparation using a dip-coating method. ▶ Substrate induced coagulation for battery materials. ▶ Solid-state reaction of titania on lithium cobalt oxide. ▶ Formation of inorganic layer studied by XRD, Rietveld analysis, XPS and SEM. ▶ Surface reaction has little effect on the content of electroactive material.
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