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Novel Nanostructured Metal Oxides for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

Metal oxide materials could offer earth-abundant, non-toxic alternatives to existing lightabsorber materials in thin-film photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells. However, efficiency of these devices based on existing metal oxides is typically low due to poor material properties. In this research, novel Sb:SnO2 nanorod and nanotube electron collectors have been synthesized, investigated and were used to improve the photo-conversion efficiency of top-performing BiVO4 photoelectrochemical cell. The performance of Sb:SnO2/BiVO4 photoanode achieved a new record for the product of light absorption and charge separation efficiencies (ηabs × ηsep) of ~ 57.3% and 58.5% under front- and back-side illumination at 0.6 VRHE and Sb:SnO2/BiVO4 PV cell achieved 1.22% solar power conversion efficiency. In addition, a new promising metal oxide material (CuBiW2O8) has been synthesized and its optoelectronic properties have been investigated to make photovoltaic cell which has potential to achieve over 30% solar power conversion efficiency.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:wpi.edu/oai:digitalcommons.wpi.edu:etd-dissertations-1509
Date19 March 2019
CreatorsZhou, Lite
ContributorsPratap M. Rao, Advisor, Richard D. Sisson Jr., Committee Member, Yan Wang, Committee Member, Lyubov Titova, Committee Member, N. Aaron Deskins, Committee Member, Danielle Cote , Committee Member
PublisherDigital WPI
Source SetsWorcester Polytechnic Institute
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceDoctoral Dissertations (All Dissertations, All Years)

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