POSS Polyimide Sealed Flexible Triple‐Junction GaAs Thin‐Film Solar Cells for Space Applications

Abstract

Flexibility and light weight are beneficial to reduce load, reduce volume, integrate device, and is the development trend of space science and technology. However, current solar cells on spacecrafts are still based on rigid triple‐junction GaAs solar cells covered by anti‐radiation glasses, which are heavy, non‐flexible, takes large separate space, and cannot be integrated with a spacecraft. To solve these problems, in this work, a transparent polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) polyimide film sealed flexible triple‐junction GaAs thin‐film solar cell has been developed by thermal lamination, with a high photoelectric conversion efficiency of 28.44% (AM0, 25 °C) and stable performance upon a 4.1 × 1021 atoms cm−2 atomic oxygen exposure and an 89.5 ESH ultra‐violet exposure. Systematical space irradiations have been conducted to the transparent POSS polyimide sealing films by ground facilities in terms of atomic oxygen, ultra‐violet, electron, electron and proton, gamma ray, and thermal cycling. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmittance, mechanical tensile strength has been tested for exploring the mechanism of space environmental effects on transparent POSS polyimide film. This study suggests a transparent POSS polyimide sealed triple‐junction GaAs thin‐film solar cell with promising potentials in flexible, lightweight, integration for durable high‐efficiency power supplies in low and high Earth orbits.

Analysis of the stability of organic photovoltaic devices through external quantum efficiency (EQE)

“…Relation, equation ( 1), shows that the short circuit current Isc is proportional to the integral of the EQE curve of the device (BAI et al, 2021;QIAN et al, 2021).…”

Advances in Smart Photovoltaic Textiles

“…Furthermore, GaAs-based SCs have a lower temperature coefficient, resulting in minimal temperature dependence . Thermal laminations have recently been used to develop transparent polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) polyamide film sealed flexible triple junction GaAs thin film SC with an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 28% . While GaAs is one of the oldest materials used in first-generation SCs with higher PCE, Si has dominated the commercial market, capturing 90% of the market share, due to several advantages.…”

“… 145 Thermal laminations have recently been used to develop transparent polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) polyamide film sealed flexible triple junction GaAs thin film SC with an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 28%. 146 While GaAs is one of the oldest materials used in first-generation SCs with higher PCE, Si has dominated the commercial market, capturing 90% of the market share, due to several advantages. These advantages include its abundance in the earth’s crust, 147 and its nontoxic nature that prevents contaminations and enhances durability.…”

Gas-Permeable Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes Fabricated from a Norbornene-Functionalized Polyimide–Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane Composite

“…5 Owing to the synergistic combination of POSS and PI moieties, POSS−PI composites have attracted considerable attention for various applications because of their distinctive properties, such as their excellent thermal and mechanical stability. 2,4−6 POSS−PI composites have recently been applied in systems such as electrical insulators, 7 thermal shields, 4,6,8 solar cells, 9 color filters, conductive films, 10 and separation membranes. branes exhibiting different configurations have been studied.…”

“…Owing to the synergistic combination of POSS and PI moieties, POSS–PI composites have attracted considerable attention for various applications because of their distinctive properties, such as their excellent thermal and mechanical stability. ,− POSS–PI composites have recently been applied in systems such as electrical insulators, thermal shields, ,, solar cells, color filters, conductive films, and separation membranes. − Particularly, POSS–PI composite membranes exhibiting different configurations have been studied. For instance, Dasgupta et al and Iyer et al investigated the gas transport properties of aminoethylaminopropylisobutyl–POSS- and octaamino–POSS-embedded PI-mixed matrix membranes, respectively, in which functionalized POSS nanoparticles served as nanofillers in the PI superstructure, leading to macroscopic interactions.…”