Photovoltaic technologies use light from the sun to create electricity, using a wide range of materials and mechanisms. The generation of clean, renewable energy using this technology must become price competitive with conventional power generation if it is to succeed on a large scale. The field of photovoltaics can be split into many sub-groups, however the overall aim of each is to reduce the cost per watt of the produced electricity. One such solar cell which has potential to reduce the cost significantly is the dye sensitised solar cell (DSC), which utilises cheap materials and processing methods. The reduction in cost of the generated electricity is largely dependent on two parameters. Firstly, the efficiency that the solar cell can convert light into electricity and secondly, the cost to deposit the solar cell. This thesis aims to address both factors, specifically looking at altering the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and substrate in the solar cell. One method to improve the overall conversion efficiency of the device is to implement the DSC as the top cell in a tandem structure, with a bottom infra-red absorbing solar cell. The top solar cell in such a structure must not needlessly absorb photons which the bottom solar cell can utilise, which can be the case in solar cells utilising standard transparent contacts such as fluorine-doped tin oxide. In this work, transparent conducting oxides with high mobility such as titanium-doped indium oxide (ITiO) have been used to successfully increase the amount of photons through a DSC, available for a bottom infra-red sensitive solar cell such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS). Although electrically and optically of very high quality, the production of DSCs on this material is difficult due to the heat and chemical instability of the film, as well as the poor adhesion of TiO2 on the ITiO surface. Deposition of a interfacial SnO2 layer and a post-deposition annealing treatment in vacuum aided the deposition process, and transparent DSCs of 7.4% have been fabricated. The deposition of a high quality TCO utilising cheap materials is another method to improve the cost/watt ratio. Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a TCO which offers very high optical and electronic quality, whilst avoiding the high cost of indium based TCOs. The chemical and thermal instability of AZO films though present a problem due to the processing steps used in DSC fabrication. Such films etch very easily in slightly acidic environments, and are susceptible to a loss of conductivity upon annealing in air, so some steps have to be taken to fabricate intact devices. In this work, thick layers of SnO2 have been used to reduce the amount of etching on the surface of the film, whilst careful control of the deposition parameters can produce AZO films of high stability. High efficiency devices close to 9% have been fabricated using these stacked layers. Finally, transferring solar cells from rigid to flexible substrates offers cost advantages, since the price of the glass substrate is a significant part of the final cost of the cell. Also, the savings associated with roll to roll deposition of solar cells is large since the production doesn't rely on a batch process, using heavy glass substrates, but a fast, continuous process. This work has explored using the high temperature stable polymer, polyimide, commonly used in CIGS and CdTe solar cells. AZO thin films have been deposited on 7.5um thick polyimide foils, and DSCs of efficiency over 4% have been fabricated on the substrates, using standard processing methods.

<div>In this thesis, we propose a model to predict the interfacial delamination in a flexible solar cell. The interface in a multilayer Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide (CIGS) flexible solar cell was studied applying the principles of fracture mechanics to a fixed-arm-peel test. </div><div>The principles of fracture mechanics ( J-integral and cohesive model) were implemented in a finite element software to compare the experimental with the numerical peeling force. A fixed-arm-peel test was used to obtain the peeling force for different peeling angles. This peel force and material properties from the CIGS solar cell were processed in several non-linear equations, so the energy required to start the delamination was obtained.The accuracy of the model was compared by fitting the experimental and numerical peeling force, which had a difference of 0.08 %. It is demonstrated that the peeling process for 90-degree could be replicated in COMSOL® software for a CIGS solar cell.</div>

<p>  </p> <p>Organic-inorganic halide perovskites are at the brink of commercialization as the next generation of light-absorbing materials for solar energy harvesting devices. Perovskites have large absorption coefficients, long charge-carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths, and a tunable absorption spectrum. Furthermore, these materials can be low-temperature solution-processed, which transfers to low-cost manufacturing and cost-competitive products. The remarkable material properties of perovskites enable a broad product-market fit, encompassing traditional and new applications for solar technology. Perovskites can be deposited on flexible substrates for flexible solar cells, applied in thermochromic windows for power generation and building cooling, or tuned for tandem solar cell application to include in high-performance solar panels. However, perovskites are intrinsically unstable, which has so far prevented their commercialization. Despite large research efforts, including over two thousand publications per year, perovskite solar cells degrade in under one year of operation. In a saturated research field, new ideas are needed to inspire alternative approaches to solve the perovskite stability problem. In this dissertation, we detail research efforts surrounding the concept of a self-healing perovskite solar cell.</p> <p>     A self-healing perovskite solar cell can be classified with two distinctions: mechanically healing and molecularly healing. First, mechanically self-healing involves the material’s ability to recover its intrinsic properties after mechanical damage such as tares, lacerations, or cracking. This type of healing was unique to the organic polymer community and ultra-rare in semiconducting materials. By combining a self-healing polymer with perovskite material, we developed a self-healing semiconducting perovskite composite material which can heal using synergistic grain growth and solid-state diffusion processes at slightly elevated temperatures. The material is demonstrated in flexible solar cells with improved bending durability and a power conversion efficiency reaching 10%. The addition of fluidic polymer enables macroscopic perovskite material movement, which is otherwise brittle and rigid. The results inspire the use of polymer scaffolds for mechanically self-healing solar cells.</p> <p>     The second type of healing, molecular healing, involves healing defects within the rigid crystal domains resulting from ion migration. The same phenomenon which leads to device degradation, also assists the recovery of the device performance after resting the device in the dark. During device operation, perovskite ions diffuse in the perovskite lattice and accumulate at the device interfaces where they undergo chemical reactions or leave the perovskite layer, ultimately consuming the perovskite precursors. The photovoltaic performance can be recovered if irreversible degradation is limited. Ideally, degradation and recovery can match day and night cycling to dramatically extend the lifetime of perovskite solar cells. In this dissertation, we introduce the application of chalcogenide chemistry in the fabrication of perovskite solar cells to control the thin film crystallization process, ultimately to reduce defects in the perovskite bulk and introduce surface functionality which extends the device stability. This new strategy will help improve molecularly self-healing perovskite solar cell by reducing irreversible degradation. Lastly, we present a few other new ideas to inspire future research in perovskite solar cells and assist in the commercialization of the next generation of photovoltaics.</p>