Nathan Bryant Dr.

Hong Huang ME 6570 16 December 2013 Fiber-Shaped Solar Cells Abstract: Since the introduction of practical solar cells in the 1950s, there has been a non stop push to continuously improve them. The photovoltaic industry has sought to increase efficiency while lowering cost to the consumer. The most effective way to lower cost is to replace the traditional doped silicon semiconductors with organic materials. In addition to their lower cost, other benefits of these organics is their ease of manufacturing and their flexible structure. Recent research has sought to produce these organic solar cells in a fiber shape. The benefits of the fiber form-factor are the ability to be woven and the ability to affectively absorb light from varying incident angles about the circumference of the fiber. Initial experimental results are promising, and are laying the ground for eventual commercial implementation. Introduction: Throughout history, humans have sought to replicate natures seemingly magical abilities. For example, mankind has sought to fly like the birds, which was only a dream until the advent of powered flight in the early 1900s. Likewise, humans have also sought to harvest usable energy from the sun just like plants do. It wasnt until 1839 when the

photovoltaic effect was discovered by Edmund Bequerel.

He discovered that some

materials emit a small voltage when exposed to light. Albert Einsteins Nobel Prize winning discovery concerning the nature of light in 1905 developed the theory that all solar cells rely on. In 1954, Bell Laboratories produced the first solar cell. Originally too expensive to be practical, it started to see its first use in the space industry in the 1960s. Afterwards, the soaring energy prices throughout the 1970s brought solar cell technology to commercial use (Knier). The continuing increase in energy cost and environmental

concerns further drive the development of solar cell technology today. The basic principle all solar cell technology relies on is the photovoltaic effect. Photons from a beam of light strike a semiconducting material, which cause electrons to jump from the atoms valence band, across a band gap, to the conduction band. The band gap is tuned by doping to allow the light photons to effectively displace the electron. When two of these semiconducting materials are placed in a junction together, a potential is produced across the n-type, electron conducting material and the p-type, electron vacancy conducting material. This voltage can be utilized as a power source when connected in a circuit. Typically the semiconducting material is a doped silicon, but the required flexibility of fiber-shaped solar cells requires the use of either semiconducting polymers or photoelectric dyes. Materials and Structure: Organic solar cell are comprised of layers of semiconducting polymers. They

function much like their inorganic counterparts. These materials are quite new to solar cells, but have already been implemented in organic LEDs and thin film transistors. Their

major advantage is their ease of manufacturing and their flexibility.

Many of these

materials can be dissolved into a solution, and then coated onto a substrate. Most organic solar cells start with a glass substrate coated with a layer of indium tin oxide. This is the transparent, yet conductive top electrode. Next, layers of the semiconducting polymers are coated onto the indium tin oxide. PPV, poly(p-phenylenevinylene), and its variants are one of the more commonly used polymers. These polymers are poor semiconductors in

comparison to their inorganic relatives, with efficiencies <5%. The addition of fullerene (C60) structures to the polymer layers to promote better conductivity between the n-type, electron conducting polymer layer and the p-type, electron vacancy conducting polymer layer. The solar cell is completed with a metal back electrode (Miles et al). Organic solar cells seem to be an ideal choice for fiber-shaped solar cells because of their flexibility and ease of manufacturing. The idea is that the layers of the organic solar cell can be deposited on a cylindrical wire substrate instead of a planar substrate. A study by OConnor et al investigated a fiber-shaped organic solar cell created by depositing the polymer layers onto a wire substrate via vacuum thermal deposition. Figure 1 shows the resulting structure.

Figure 1: Structure of deposited layers (OConnor et al)

One issue arises with the deposited layers on a wire substrate. The transparent, conductive outer layer has significant losses over the length of the fiber. A solution proposed by Lee et al implements a metal wire as an electrode. The low resistivity of metal allows for a longer fiber with less loss and higher efficiency. The structure is similar to that of the deposited layers on a substrate, but the transparent, conductive outer layer is replaced with a metal wire wrapped in conductive cladding. The conductive wire is placed in direct contact with the fiber-shaped solar cell. The two fibers are incased in a transparent outer coating. Figure 2 shows the resulting structure.

Figure 2: Structure of metal wire electrode fiber-based, organic solar cell (Lee et al) This structure is the most promising for efficient, long-length, fiber-shaped, organic solar cells. The ability to create long lengths of fiber are necessary for application that require weaving of the fiber solar cells. Dye-sensitized solar cells is another solar cell technology that has been implemented experimentally into fiber-shaped solar cells. They too have the advantages of flexibility and ease of manufacturing. Dye-sensitized solar cells start with a layer of

titanium oxide (TiO2) being screen printed onto a fluorine doped tin oxide (SnO2) coated glass. A dye is added to the titanium oxide. The dye is typically ruthenium based, and the titanium oxide has a rough surface to increase surface area. The second electrode is formed by screen printing platinum onto another piece of fluorine doped SnO 2 coated glass. An iodine based electrolyte is added, and the whole solar cell is sealed together. Typical efficiency is 8.2%, but efficiencies of up to 11% have been reported (Miles et al). The first attempt at a dye-sensitized, fiber-shaped solar cell was proposed by the Konarka Technologies Inc. Figure 3 shows the structure of the dye-sensitized solar cell proposed by Konarka from their patent.

Figure 3: Konarka patent for a dye-sensitized fiber-shaped solar cell (Zou et al) The design patented by Konarka places the two electrodes, dye coated TiO2, and electrolyte within a plastic tube. The drawbacks to this design are numerous. The diameter of the outer plastic tube is too large to be considered as a thin fiber. This limits the flexibility and weavability of this design. The liquid electrolyte is also able to spill out in the event that the outer plastic tube is cracked. This too limits the flexibility of the fiber-shaped solar cell.

The solution to produce a true fiber-shaped solar cell is in creating a solid-state dyesensitized solar cell. Recent attempts at solid-state, dye-sensitized, fiber-shaped solar cells by Fan et al have yielded some success. Their design utilizes a thin stainless steel wire with a layer the dye coated TiO2 as one electrode. The other electrode is another conductive wire that is wrapped tightly around coated wire. The two wires must be wound together tightly to insure good conduction since there is no electrolyte. Figure 4 shows both optical and SEM images of the resulting structure.

Figure 4: Optical and SEM images of solid-state fiber solar cell (Fan et al, Adv. Mat)

These thin wire, solid-state, dye-sensitized, fiber-shaped solar cells are quite promising. However, high efficiencies cannot be achieved yet. This is due to the lack of an electrolyte to aid in conduction. Researchers are exploring methods of making flexible and weavable fiber-shaped solar cells, and including an electrolyte for higher efficiency. An attempt at dye-sensitized, fiber-shaped solar cells by Wang et al uses all titanium for their solar cell. Titanium wires coated with dye treated TiO2 and electrolyte are sandwiched between ultra-clear glass and a thin titanium sheet coated in platinum as the second electrode. This design achieved higher efficiencies than the solid-state, wound fibers. As seen in Figure 5, the titanium sheet allowed more light to be reflected within the cell.

Figure 5: Sandwiched fiber structure solar cell (Wang et al) This design allows for a weaving of fibers within the cell. In repeat experiments, the titanium wires were woven in an attempt to gather incident light at a wider range of angles. With the glass being replaced with a transparent film, creating a flexible solar cell. Another promising design has been proposed by Toivola et al. Instead of incident light be gathered at the surface of the fiber, light is focused down the center of the fiber solar cell via an optical fiber. Light would be internally reflected and efficiency would increase due to the

larger amount of light in contact with the cell. The components of the dye-sensitized solar cell are deposited onto the optical fiber as seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Optical fiber dye-sensitized solar cell (Toivola et al) The key advantage to this design is that the light experiences total internal reflection with in the optical fiber. The light is essentially channeled directly to the workings of the solar cell, as demonstrated in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Example of light channeling effect (Weintraub et al)

This channeling allows more incident light to reach the solar cell, regardless of the suns angle with respect to the solar cell Synthesis: One of the advantages to the fiber-shaped solar cell is the ease of manufacturing. Unlike planar solar cells, fibers dont rely on extreme, uniform flatness. Fiber substrates can be extruded into very uniform wires through a die. With the organic solar cells, most of the polymer components are soluble. This allows for a variety of simple consistent

manufacturing methods. In the case of OConner et al, the polymer layers were deposited using vacuum thermal evaporation. In which the polymer solution is evaporated under vacuum, and condenses as a thin film upon the fiber substrate. On the other hand, Lee et al dip coated the wire in the polymer solution, and baked it to dry. This method translates well to mass production, where large spools of fiber substrate can be feed through a solution bath, baked dry, and spooled up again as final product. Dye-sensitized solar cells are slightly more complex to manufacture as a fibershaped solar cell. In the case of Fan et al, the solid state design eliminates the need for a liquid electrolyte. One wire is coated in a colloid of dye-treated TiO2, and sintered at 500C to dry. It is wound with the second electrode with a constant pitch. Fiber cells that utilize an electrolyte are more difficult to make. In the case of Wang et al, the TiO2 fibers had to be sealed within a layer of glass and titanium sheet along with the electrolyte. The optical fiber solar cell made by Toivola et al was made by applying the dye treated TiO2 colloid to the optical fiber as a paste, and then sintered at 500C to dry. The remaining layers of electrolyte and carbon electrode were dip coated and allowed to dry. As the fiber solar cell

technology advances and demand increases, the facilities and capabilities to mass produce them will also increase. Characterization: The measuring of solar cell performance is well established and standardized. The solar cell is subjected to a 1kW/m2 light intensity source. For use on earth, the test environment is set to an air mass of 1.5. This replicates the effects of earths atmosphere on incoming light photons. The solar cell temperature is regulated to a constant 25C. These test criteria are inherently difficult to maintain, and are only approximated as close as possible. The voltage and current across the solar cell are measured by a computer (Measurement of Solar Cell Efficiency). The computer measures and records open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current (Isc). The maximum power (Pmax) is measured a when voltage multiplied by current is maximum. Fill factor (ff) is equal to Pmax /( Voc Isc), and is a common measure of solar cell performance. Efficiency () is equal to Pmax / PI (the power density of the light source). Performance: Using test methods outlined in characterization, the organic, fiber-based solar cells made by OConner et al only generated an efficiency of 0.5%. When compared to their planar control specimen which maxed at 1.13%, this is significantly less. One reason for the decreased efficiency is shading. A portion of the fiber is not exposed to the light source, because it is shaded by itself. By their calculation, a 17% decrease in efficiency from the planar specimen is expected. Another source of the decreased efficiency is due to losses due to resistance in the transparent, conductive electrode. This limited the overall length

of fiber. Interestingly fibers have relatively constant efficiency across many azimuth angles when oriented about the circumference of the fiber as shown in the graph in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Relative efficiency vs. azimuth angle graph (OConnor et al) This is a potentially useful characteristic of fiber solar cells that may offer a better solution to traditional solar tracking systems. When the transparent, conductive electrode was replaced by a separate wire electrode in experiments conducted by Lee et al, efficiency of organic fiber-shaped solar cells increased to 2.79%-3.27%. This is a sizable improvement, and shows a promising future for organic fiber-shaped solar cells for small power draw applications. The solid-state, dye-sensitized, fiber-shaped solar cells produced by Fan et al produced an efficiency of ~0.14%. This is significantly lower than the planar, electrolytefilled counterparts that can reach near 11% efficiency. The causes for loss in the solid-

state, dye-sensitized solar cells is due to the lack of an electrolyte to effectively conduct the charge. The solid-state, dye-sensitized solar cells rely solely on physical contact for charge conduction. The all titanium solar cells made by Wang et al managed to achieve a

maximum efficiency of 5.12%. This is due partially to the presence of an electrolyte to better aide in charge conduction. The other contributing factor to the increase in efficiency is the reflective titanium sheet substrate. This eliminates the issue of shadowing caused by the titanium wires. The optical fiber, dye-sensitized solar cells made by Toivola et al produced a maximum efficiency of 53.7 10-6 %. This value is very low, but this is due to the inability to properly focus the light down the length of the optical fiber. Tests were also conducted with single fibers instead of a bundle or pigtail of fibers that would gather more light. Further experimentation on optical fiber, dye-sensitized solar cells by

Weintraub et al produced efficiencies as high as 3.3%. The technology has room for further improvement, but could soon be tailored to low power applications. Discussion: The current efficiencies of fiber-shaped solar cells prevent their applications in high power applications, but could be implemented to smaller, lower power applications. The greatest advantage to fiber-shaped solar cells is their flexibility and their ability to be woven into a mesh or cloth. A possible future application could be integration into cloth or clothing. This would allow a wearable solar cell that could be used to power small electronics. Another application for a woven fiber solar cell is in composite materials. The fibers could be could be woven on their own to create a shapeable solar cell that could be placed on the leading edge of an airfoil or along the surface of an auto body panel to collect

additional solar energy. The fibers could also be woven into fiberglass or carbon fiber cloth, and allow a structural member to collect solar energy. Figure 9 shows optical and SEM images of woven titanium fiber, dye-sensitized solar cells.

Figure 9: Optical and SEM images of woven titanium fiber, dye-sensitized solar cells (Fan et al, App. Phy. Lett.) The flexibility of these woven mesh solar cells will prove to be useful in specialized applications where traditional heavy, fixed, planar solar cells would be inefficient. Last, an additional application would be in a low cost, non-trackable solar panel. When oriented with the suns angle of azimuth about the circumference of the wire, these

fiber-shaped cells can receive more solar energy without the need for expensive solar tracking systems. This could be easily implemented by orienting the fiber solar cells in one direction along a planar substrate. When the panel properly oriented, even lying flat, equal solar energy could be collected throughout the day without costly solar tracking systems. This would be an ideal replacement for current residential/commercial roofing solar systems, which by their nature of being fixed to a roof, cannot track the sun. Conclusion: Since the introduction of practical solar cells in the 1950s, there has been a non stop push to continuously improve them. The photovoltaic industry has sought to increase efficiency while lowering cost to the consumer. The most effective way to lower cost is to replace the traditional doped silicon semiconductors with organic materials. In addition to their lower cost, other benefits of these organics is their ease of manufacturing and their flexible structure. Recent research has sought to produce these organic solar cells in a fiber shape. Both organic and dye-sensitized solar cells can take on the fiber form-factor. The benefits of the fiber form-factor are the ability to be woven and the ability to affectively absorb light from varying incident angles about the circumference of the fiber. Current experimentation is producing fiber-shaped solar cells with efficiencies ranging from a fraction of a percent up to 5%. In specialized applications where flexibility and low weight take priority to overall efficiency, these solar cells are ideal. With continued development these efficiency values are bound to increase even more. The future is as bright as the sun with the development and eventual commercial application of fiber shaped solar cells.

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