12 - Rare-earth-activated phosphors for energy-efficient solar cell

Abstract

Although the efficiency of dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cell is still below the performance level of market ascendancy silicon solar cells, in the last few years, they have captured noteworthy interest owing to their fabrication effortlessness using low-cost materials, and hereafter these cells are considered as a potential substitution to commercial photovoltaic devices. Nevertheless, third-generation solar cells have significant absorption in the visible region of the solar spectrum, which limits their power conversion efficiency. Consequently, the performance of current photovoltaics is considerably disadvantaged by the transmission loss of subbandgap photons. To conquer these concerns, rare-earth-activated luminescent materials are the encouraging route followed to convert these transmitted subbandgap photons into above-bandgap light, where solar cells typically have significant light-scattering effects. Furthermore, the rare-earth-based down/upconversion materials ease the improvement in sensitization, light scattering, and device stability of these devices. This chapter gives an idea about an approach to the application of various down/upconversion materials for dye-sensitized and perovskite solar-cell applications. Moreover, the chapter converses the techniques to improve the photovoltaic performance in terms of current density and photovoltage in detail.