Photovoltaic industry has proved to be a growing and advantageous source of energy as it can be renewable, sustainable, reliable and clean. Significant improvements have been made in materials used and the production processes to reduce the costs, and to avoid possible issues induced by some hazardous materials. However, some health and environment challenges last, which must be overcome to make this technology a source of truly clean energy. This chapter provides an overview on the major environmental impacts of thin film technology associated with the use of toxic materials and the chemicals in the manufacturing processes. A summary of Environmental, Health and Safety issues associated with some thin film technologies like copper indium gallium diselenide (CIS/CIGS), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) is done, in order to investigate potential infections induced by the environmental release of trace elements, usually coming from chemical vapor inhalation and eventually accidental spills during the manufacturing processes, on the health of humans and animals. Potential solutions will be provided to prevent some environmental issues.
Group III elements doping for zinc oxide is currently attracting much attention for the study of absorber layer in nano-optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices as an alternative route to indium tin oxide (ITO) due to their optimized properties. In this report, Al-doped ZnO (AZO, Al: 1−7 at%) nanoparticles have been successfully deposited onto glass substrates using sol-gel process, and investigated by techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The coated ZnO:Al nanoparticles at Al concentration up to 5 at% showed a nanosized polycrystalline structure with a c-plane preferred orientation. In AZO (7 at%), lower diffraction peaks were observed. The crystallite size calculated from XRD was ranged 38.7−43.5 nm. SEM showed spherical nanoparticles in shape with a smooth surface. The Raman results provided peaks located at 434, 435, 559, 851, and 1090 cm −1. According to XPS, the as-grown nanoparticles present the most intense peak located at about 1021.8 eV, assigned to the Zn 2p 3/2 corresponding to zinc oxide. It was concluded that the structural properties of AZO thin films were improved with Al (5 at%), and these samples may be considered as an alternative of costly ITO in thin-film photovoltaic applications.
Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is one of the most promising electrontransporting materials in CdTe-based solar cells. In the present study, we use chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique to synthesize cadmium sulphide (CdS). The influence of solution pH level on the structural properties of CdS films was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the as-grown CdS thin films were polycrystalline in nature, consisting of hexagonal wurtzite phase. SEM images showed grains uniformly distributed over the surface of the substrates, and EDS results demonstrated that the composition analysis of Cd:S ratio is close to 1:1. These CdS layers are expected to enhance the current, resulting in best photovoltaic performance for CdTe-based solat cells.
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Cubic zinc sulfide (c-ZnS) thin films have been prepared using dipcoating technique. X-ray diffraction pattern revealed cubic phase with the preferred (111) plane in ZnS films. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis showed the granular shaped type of surface texture. The energy dispersive X-ray method indicated an excess of zinc. UV-Visible spectroscopy is used to measure the transmittance of thin films which is found to be superior to 80 %. These experimental results showed that the as-grown ZnS nanoparticles were of high purity.
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