To improve the thermal stability of lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, the room-temperature molten salts
LiBF4
/1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate
(EMIBF4)
and
NaBF4/EMIBF4
were used as ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes instead of flammable carbonate-type organic electrolyte solvents. To avoid cathodic decomposition of the IL electrolytes, a symmetric cell configuration with Na Superionic CONductor (NASICON)-type
normalA3normalV2(PO4)3
(where A is Li or Na) as both cathode and anode was tried in a coin-type cell (type 2320). As a result, both the polyanionic-based
Li3normalV2(PO4)3
(LVP) as well as
Na3normalV2(PO4)3
(NVP) symmetric cells using organic electrolytes were found to operate as secondary batteries and exhibited satisfactory electrochemical performances. The substitution of the organic electrolytes by the appropriate IL electrolytes in both cases resulted in the reduction in the first discharge capacities. However, the IL-based cells revealed better cyclability and a more stable behavior at elevated temperatures. The obtained electrochemical behavior of the symmetric cells was confirmed by the complex impedance measurements at 25 and
80°C
. In addition, the thermal stability of LVP and NVP with the IL electrolytes was also examined.
Silicon heterojunction solar cells consist of crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers coated with doped/intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) bilayers for passivating-contact formation. Here, we unambiguously demonstrate that carrier injection either due to light soaking or (dark) forward-voltage bias increases the open circuit voltage and fill factor of finished cells, leading to a conversion efficiency gain of up to 0.3% absolute. This phenomenon contrasts markedly with the light-induced degradation known for thin-film a-Si:H solar cells. We associate our performance gain with an increase in surface passivation, which we find is specific to doped a-Si:H/c-Si structures. Our experiments suggest that this improvement originates from a reduced density of recombination-active interface states. To understand the time dependence of the observed phenomena, a kinetic model is presented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.