Although charge-carrier selectivity in conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells is usually realized by doping Si, the presence of dopants imposes inherent performance limitations due to parasitic absorption and carrier recombination. The development of alternative carrier-selective contacts, using non-Si electron and hole transport layers, has the potential to overcome such drawbacks and simultaneously reduce the cost and/or simplify the fabrication process of c-Si solar cells. Nevertheless, devices relying on such non-Si contacts with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) that rival their classical counterparts are yet to be demonstrated. In this study, one key element is brought forward toward this demonstration by incorporating low-pressure chemical vapor deposited ZnO as the electron transport layer in c-Si solar cells. Placed at the rear of the device, it is found that rather thick (75 nm) ZnO film capped with LiF x /Al simultaneously enables efficient electron selectivity and suppression of parasitic infrared absorption. Next, these electron-selective contacts are integrated in c-Si solar cells with MoO x -based hole-collecting contacts at the device front to realize full-area dopant-freecontact solar cells. In the proof-of-concept device, a PCE as high as 21.4% is demonstrated, which is a record for this novel device class and is at the level of conventional industrial solar cells.

Nanostructured silicon solar cells show great potential for new-generation photovoltaics due to their ability to approach ideal light-trapping. However, the nanofeatured morphology that brings about the optical benefits also introduces new recombination channels, and severe deterioration in the electrical performance even outweighs the gain in optics in most attempts. This Research News article aims to review the recent progress in the suppression of carrier recombination in silicon nanostructures, with the emphasis on the optimization of surface morphology and controllable nanostructure height and emitter doping concentration, as well as application of dielectric passivation coatings, providing design rules to realize high-efficiency nanostructured silicon solar cells on a large scale.

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Si nanopyramids have been suggested as one of the most promising Si nanostructures to realize high-efficient ultrathin solar cells or photodetectors due to their low surface area enhancement and outstanding ability to enhance light absorption. However, the present techniques to fabricate Si nanopyramids are either complex or expensive. In parallel, disordered nanostructures are believed to be extremely effective to realize broadband light trapping for solar cells. Here, a simple and cost-effective method is presented to form random Si nanopyramids based on an all-solution process, the mechanism behind which is the successful transfer of the generation site of bubbles from Si surface to the introduced Ag nanoparticles so that OH − can react with the entire Si surface to naturally form random and dense Si nucleus. For optical performance, it is experimentally demonstrated that the random Si nanopyramid textured ultrathin crystalline Si (c-Si) can achieve light trapping approaching the Lambertian limit. Importantly, it is revealed, by numerical calculations, that random Si nanopyramids outperform periodic ones on broadband light absorption due to more excited optical resonance modes. The finding provides a new opportunity to improve the performance of ultrathin c-Si solar cells with a simpler process and lower cost.

In this work, Ni(2+)-modified gold nanoclusters were fabricated for fluorescence turn-on detection of histidine. The fluorescence of Au NCs was first quenched by Ni(2+). Then, the addition of histidine can restore the fluorescence of Au NCs by binding with Ni(2+) and removing it from the surface of the Au NCs. This architecture ensured non-toxic, cost-effective, label-free and sensitive detection of histidine. The developed Au NCs-based fluorescent sensor offered high selectivity for histidine over other amino acids. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for eleven replicate detections was 2.7%. The detection limit for histidine is 30 nM. The recovery of spiked histidine in human urine samples ranges from 95 to 104%.

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Dopant-free passivating contacts for photovoltaics have the potential to be deposited at low costs while providing excellent surface passivation and low contact resistance. However, one pressing issue of dopant-free carrier selective contacts is their lower environmental stability compared to conventional silicon-based contacts. In this contribution, we study the degradation in the ZnO/LiF x /Al electron selective nanocontact with experiments and simulations and suggest design modifications for higher performance and stability. Using a thicker metallization and optimal ZnO deposition temperature (130 °C), we improved open-circuit voltage and fill factor, together with improved stability with retention of over 93 and 88% of the initial open-circuit voltage and fill factor after storage in air for 380 h. The champion device has reached an efficiency of 21.3% with V OC of 727 mV, J SC of 37.6 mA/cm2, and FF of 78.0%. Furthermore, the enhanced stability in vacuum, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images, and the current-exchange simulation suggests that the degradation of the a-Si:H­(i)/ZnO/LiF x /Al contact is caused by a drop of the LiF x /Al work function, due to interaction with air. This work has developed a deep understanding of the degradation mechanism and the methodology of stability analysis for dopant-free silicon solar cells.

Large‐scale (156 mm × 156 mm) quasi‐omnidirectional solar cells are successfully realized and featured by keeping high cell performance over broad incident angles (θ), via employing Si nanopyramids (SiNPs) as surface texture. SiNPs are produced by the proposed metal‐assisted alkaline etching method, which is an all‐solution‐processed method and highly simple together with cost‐effective. Interestingly, compared to the conventional Si micropyramids (SiMPs)‐textured solar cells, the SiNPs‐textured solar cells possess lower carrier recombination and thus superior electrical performances, showing notable distinctions from other Si nanostructures‐textured solar cells. Furthermore, SiNPs‐textured solar cells have very little drop of quantum efficiency with increasing θ, demonstrating the quasi‐omnidirectional characteristic. As an overall result, both the SiNPs‐textured homojunction and heterojunction solar cells possess higher daily electric energy production with a maximum relative enhancement approaching 2.5%, when compared to their SiMPs‐textured counterparts. The quasi‐omnidirectional solar cell opens a new opportunity for photovoltaics to produce more electric energy with a low cost.