Solid-State Solar Energy Conversion from WO3 Nano and Microstructures with Charge Transportation and Light-Scattering Characteristics

Abstract

Solar energy conversion devices composed of highly crystalline gel polymers with disk-WO3 nanostructure and plate-WO3 microstructures (D-WO3 and P-WO3, respectively) exhibited higher power conversion efficiency than those with a gel electrolyte. In this study, D-WO3 and P-WO3 were prepared using a hydrothermal process and their structural and morphological features were investigated for application in solar energy conversion devices. The P-WO3 solid-state electrolyte significantly enhanced the cell performance owing to its charge transportation and light-scattering characteristics. The P-WO3 solid-state electrolyte showed a power conversion efficiency of 6.3%, which is higher than those of the gel (4.2%) and D-WO3 solid-state (5.5%) electrolytes. The electro-chemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), intensity-modulated voltage spectroscopy (IMVS), diffuse reflectance, and incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) analysis results showed that the P-WO3 solid-state electrolyte showed improved charge transportation and light scattering, and hence enhanced the cell performance.

Incorporating Solution-Processed Mesoporous WO3 as an Interfacial Cathode Buffer Layer for Photovoltaic Applications

“…WO 3 is an extensively studied potential candidate for PV devices. , With a view to enhance the PCE, research focused on the exploration of WO 3 as a photoanode material retarding the efficiency because of high band gap and less electron mobility than that of DSSCs based on the other semiconducting metal oxides, such as TiO 2 and ZnO, without employing any surface modification . On the other hand, efforts to replace organic polymers with WO 3 , as a hole injection layer (HTL) in PV cells leads to exhibit higher device performance, which are currently receiving increased attention.…”

“…34,35 With a view to enhance the PCE, research focused on the exploration of WO 3 as a photoanode material retarding the efficiency because of high band gap and less electron mobility than that of DSSCs based on the other semiconducting metal oxides, such as TiO 2 and ZnO, without employing any surface modification. 36 On the other hand, efforts to replace organic polymers with WO 3 , as a hole injection layer (HTL) in PV cells leads to exhibit higher device performance, which are currently receiving increased attention. However, the methods such as sputtering, thermal evaporation, and pulsed laser deposition, involve depositing the WO 3 layer, which is incompatible with a low-cost and solution-processed layer for future scalable manufacturing.…”

Quasi-Solid-State SiO2 Electrolyte Prepared from Raw Fly Ash for Enhanced Solar Energy Conversion

“…For reliability, we provided the photocurrent density-photovoltaic curves of DSSCs of the different sets of quasi-solid-state (SiO 2 ) electrolytes ( Figure S3 ). In addition, the photovoltaic efficiency of the DSSCs based on FA_SiO 2 as a quasi-solid-state (SiO 2 ) electrolyte represents one of the highest values reported for quasi-solid-state electrolyte-based ssDSSCs to date, as shown in Table S2 [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. The photovoltaic properties of DSSCs of FA_SiO 2 with different contents are shown in Figure S4 , and the results are summarized in Table S3 .…”

Highly stable electrochromic cells based on amorphous tungsten oxides prepared using a solution‐annealing process

“…Various transition metal oxides including Ti 2 O 5 , MoO 3 , V 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 , and WO 3 have been used in catalysis and semiconductor applications. Tungsten (W) is the most well‐known TMD material that has been studied for many applications such as gas sensors, 8,9 solar cells, 10,11 supercapacitors, 12,13 batteries, 14,15 and, in particular, electrochromic devices 16,17 . There are numerous facile novels to prepare WO 3 which were reported by previous studies 18,19 .…”