A Seminar Repot

on

Plastic Solar Cell Technology

Submitted By : -
Submitted To : - Aanchal Soni
Mr. Himanshu Chhabra IV Year (ECE)
17EMBEC001
 ABSTRACT
Energy is the drive input and improve the life cycle. The
consumption of the energy is directly proportional to the mankind with
ever growing population , improvement in the living standard of the
humanity, industrialization of the developing countries like India. The
primary source of energy are decreasing day by day due to more
demand of energy. So we need non- conventional energy sources to
full-fill the energy demand.
Recent improvements in the power conversion efficiencies of organic
cells deals with basic principal of operation of plastic solar cells and
demonstrate the implementation of the Nano-rod and screen – printing
technology.
 CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. Conventional Solar Cells :-
A. Working Principle
B. Applications
C. Advantages
D. Disadvantages
3. Plastic Solar Cells :-
E. Device Architecture
F. Designing
G. Working Principle
H. Applications
I. Advantages
J. Disadvantages
4. Comparison between Conventional SC and Plastic SC
5. Conclusion
6. References
1. INTRODUCTION :-
With the ever-increasing demand of electrical energy
everyone is looking towards Sun as a source of electrical energy along
with its role as an important source of thermal energy. The sun always
shines and provides energy to the earth in the form of light, even on
cloudy days. Solar panels convert this light into electricity.
At the heart of all photovoltaic devices are two separate layers of
materials, one with an abundance of electrons those function as a
‘Negative pole’ and one with an abundance of holes(vacant positively-
charged energy spaces) that functioned as a ‘positive pole’. When
photons from the Sun are absorbed , their energy is transferred to the
extra electron in negative pole , causing them to flow to positive pole &
creating new holes that start flowing to the negative pole, thus producing
electrical current which can be used to power other devices.
2. CONVENTIONAL SOLAR CELLS :-
• A solar cell is a device that converts the light energy into electrical
energy. Usually light from the sun is used to generate electricity from
such a device hence the name solar cell.
• Conventional Solar cells are built from semiconductors
(polycrystalline silicon or , in the case of highest efficiency , crystalline
gallium arsenide).
• Usually mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline materials are needed for
higher efficiency.
• The conventional solar cells , which are very expensive semiconductor
laminates , coverts , at most , 35% of sun’s energy into electricity .
Fig 1- Conventional solar cells
A. Working Principle – A p-n junction
• The conventional solar cell is made up of p -
type and n-type materials. Sunlight which is
made of Photons are particles which contain
energy.
• When p-doped and n-doped semiconductors
are brought together, a depletion layer
is formed.
• The depletion layer sets up an electric field.
• Any charge in the field experiences a force
Fig. 2- A p-n junction.
that sweeps it to the end of the depletion layer.
• A photon excites an electron from the
Valence band to the conduction band
creating an electron-hole pair.
• The excited electrons in the depletion
layer move towards the n-type end while
the holes move to the p-type end.
• This result in to production of current .
This movement of electrons or flow of
current is known as “Electricity”. Fig.3- Movement of charge carries
produce current.
• This flow of charge drives the external
load.
Fig.4- Working of conventional
solar cell
B. Applications :-
• Generating electricity for space vehicles.
• To drive solar powered vehicles .
• Power for facilities like repeater stations for TV ,
radio etc. in remote locations.
• As an off-grid energy source .
• Alternative energy source for household purpose
where normal electricity is not feasible.
• Power source for small devices like pocket
calculators and wrist watches .
C. Advantages :-
1. High efficiency – Up to 30% has been reached. Normally 10% for
commercial product.
2. Renewable energy – Can be used both to generate electricity and
heat in the house.
3. Innovative energy – Considered to be a good solution to prevent
climate change.
4. Environmental energy – With solar cells occurs almost no
pollution.
5. Economic-friendly energy – Provide a great opportunity to create
saving on our electric bills.
6. Infinite energy .
D. Disadvantages :-

1. High investment – The installation cost of solar panels are very

high .
2. Seasonal energy – Compared to other types of renewable
energy, the solar power plant is highly seasonal .
3. Very large geographical area is needed in order to deploy solar
cells.
4. This generate direct current (DC). It requires DC appliances or
inverters to convert DC to AC.
5. These are only used for large application with big budgets.
3. PLASTIC SOLAR CELLS :-
• A Plastic solar cell or an Organic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic
that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with
conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules , for light
absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight
by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are
Polymer solar cells.
• Polymers offer the advantage of solution processing at room
temperature , which is cheaper and allows use of plastics.
• Thus , replacing the silicon with polymer nanowires would make the
solar cell much lighter and eventually cheaper.
• Plastics are made of polymers, which are very long molecules. For
solar cells, we use a special type of polymer that can convert sunlight
into electricity.
• The plastic solar cells use nanotechnology and contains the first solar
cell able to harness the sun’s invisible , infrared rays.
• The working of this type of solar cells is same as that of conventional
solar cells but these solar cells are of small size and harness all the
rays from sun’s radiation.

Fig.5- Plastic solar

cells.
A. Device Architecture :-
• The simplest and most widely used organic semiconductor device is a
Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) tunnel diode with metal electrodes of
a symmetrical work-function.
• The insulator typically is a conjugated polymer.
• A more complicated design uses two conducting polymers differing
in electron affinities forming heterojunction.
• A typical polymer solar cell consists of a glass substrate coated with a
layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) acting as the anode.
• The ITO is then covered by a hole transport layer thin film such as
poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate
(PEDOT:PSS).
• Then the active layer is deposited by wet processing (spin-coating ,
doctor blading , screen-printing ) or by evaporation.
• At last the cathode (Al/Ca) is evaporated and selected to match the
energy levels of the acceptor.

Fig.6- Architecture of PSC.

Preparation Coating of hole Coating of
of ITO conduction active layer
surface layer PEDOT:PSS

Sealing against Evaporation

Device oxygen and of top
testing water contact

Production Technique
B. Designing :-
1. Nano-rod/Polymer Technique :-
• The plastic solar cell designed is actually a hybrid ,comprised of tiny
Nano-rod dispersed in an organic polymer/plastic.
• We can considered this hybrid plastic solar cell with a Nano-rod/polymer
layer sandwiched between two electrodes.
• Nano-rods are mixed with a plastic semiconductor, called P3HT {Poly-(3-
Hexythiophene )} and coated a transparent electrode with the mixture .
• The thickness is a factor of 10 less than the micron thickness of
semiconductor solar cells .
• Using rod-shaped Nano-crystals rather than spheres provided a directed
path of electron transport help to improve solar cell performances
• These types of hybrid solar cells are reported to achieve a
monochromatic power conversion efficiency of 6.9% , one of the
highest ever reported for a plastic solar cell.
• We can manufacture Nano-rods in a beaker containing cadmium
selenide to absorbs as much sunlight as possible. They also aim
for Nano-rod as long as possible .
• The given panel is an eight plastic solar cells based on inorganic
Nano-rods and semiconducting polymers. The shiny ovals are the
Aluminium back electrodes of individual solar cells.

Fig.7- Hybrid
PSC
2. Screen-printing Technology :-

• Screen-printing is commonly used industrial technique for fast,

inexpensive deposition of dye films over large areas.
• It is an ideal technology for large-scale fabrication of polymer based
solar cells.
• This allows patterning to easily define which areas of the substrate
receive deposition .
• Using this technique , individual’s devices can be easily define on the
same substrate.
• We use this technique to deposit an ultra thin and smooth active layer
in a bulk heterojunction photovoltaic device.
• The use of screen-printing to fabricate a polymer layer with the
thickness less than 100 nm , serving as the whole transport layer in an
organic light-emitting diode.
• This device yields a power conversion efficiency of 4.3%.
• The application of this technique is to the fabrication of an organic
cell further increase the strong potential that these devices have for
practical use.

a) Device structure of bulk heterojunction b) The screen-printing technique.

solar cell connected to an external resistive
load.
 C. Working principle :- MIM tunnel
• Conjugated polymers are analogous to
inorganic semiconductors.
• Like in the semiconductors the electrons are
excited by the photons creating electron-hole
pair .
• Unlike in the semiconductors the electrons
and the holes are not free to move. They form
excitons and move together.
• The paired charges are splited at the interface
using electrodes of suitable work functions. Conjugated polymer

• Holes get collected at the high work function Fig.8- Charge generation
electrode and the electrons get collected at process.
the low work function electrode.
• Nano-rod in the PSC acts like wires
when they absorbs light of specific
wavelengths they generate an electron
and hole in the rod that moves around
just like an electron.
• The electron travels the length of rod
until it is collected by Al electrode .
• The hole is transferred to plastic which is
known as a hole carrier.
• Energy gap between the bands is
typically 1.5 –3 eV which lies in the range
of the visible light.
• The Active layer contains two polymers, a long
green one and a shorter red one.
• There is a lot of interface, or area of contact,
between the two polymers. This is necessary,
because sunlight creates electrical charges only
at the areas where the two polymers are in
contact. When the light is absorbed (the yellow
star), positive (+) and negative (−) electrical
charges are generated. Normally, the + and −
attract each other and the energy is lost. Sunlight creates a plus (+) and a minus
• In plastic solar cells, the red and green polymers (−) charge at the interface between two
polymers. The (−) charge moves to the
make sure the charges can be separated. The (−) pole of the solar cell and the (+)
positive and negative charges then move to the charge to the (+) pole. These poles
+ and − poles. Now, light is converted to moving work just like those in a battery, but are
powered by the sun and never run out
charges, which is electricity! as long as the sun shines.
 The special additive :-
• To differentiate between good and bad solar cells , a special additive
is used .
• The special additive is a slowly drying liquid, which is added to the ink
in a small amount.
• The active layers are made by a process called spin coating the ink.
Spin coating is a technique to make thin films from an ink.
• A drop of ink that contains the green and red polymers in a liquid is
put on a glass plate. By very fast rotation, a thin wet film forms that
dries by evaporating the liquid.
• While drying, the red polymer forms large droplets, which cause the
poor performance.
• We found that without additive the large droplets form in a late stage
of the drying process, and even later, the green polymer changes
colour.
• Long polymers can fold up, the folding makes the green polymers
change their colour.
• The effect of the special additive is to make the green polymer fold
earlier.
• Once the green polymer folds, the red polymer does not form
droplets. The folding of the green polymer holds back droplet
formation and results in better mixed layers.
• Special additive controls folding of one of the two polymers.
• The folding prevents large droplets and increases the amount of
interface between the two polymers in the active layer.
 Fig.9- Spin coating technique.

Spin coating is a technique to make thin films. The top view looks like a pottery kick wheel. . First,
a droplet of ink is put on a glass plate. Then, that glass plate is rotated at high speed. Because of
the rotation the ink droplet spreads out and forms a thin film. Without additive, the ink is dry
within 1 s and the red polymer clusters in droplets, which is bad for solar cell performance. With
additive, the drying takes longer time and the red polymer is more spread out, which is good for
solar cell performance.
 Fig.10- Working of the special
additive .

The top figure shows a small part of the ink droplet we put on the spin
coater. We see that the green polymers and the red polymers are mixed. During the
spin coating, the ink will dry. Without additive, we see a clustering of the red
polymers. With additive, we see something very different: the green polymers fold
up. The folding prevents the formation of the clusters of the red polymers.
D. Applications :-
• Plastic formulations open the possibility of printing
solar cells onto various structures.
• It is also used in wearable computing devices.
• It is used for many imaging applications in the medical
field and for fibre optic communication.
• Ultra high efficient plastic solar cells are expected to
work well in low- light conditions and under artificial
light .
• A hydrogen powered car painted with the fil could
potentially convert energy into electricity to continually
recharge the car’s battery.
• The US military already placed orders for PV material
as part of on- going development programmers with
Army, Navy , and Air force.
E. Advantages :-
• The manufacturing technique of PSC is very easy.
• This can be built on various substrates.
• They are considered to be 30% more efficient when compared to
conventional solar cells.
• They are more efficient and more practical in application.
• Traditional solar cells are more bulky panels. This is very compact.
• PSCs are feasible as they can be even sewn into fabric, thus having
vast applications.
• They have the potential to turn the sun’s power into a clean, green
and consistent source of energy .
F. Disadvantages :-

• The biggest problem with these cells is cost effectiveness , but

that could change with new material.
• Relatively shorter life span when continuously exposed to sun-
light .
• It could possibly require constant monitoring.
• The maintenance cost is also very high.
• The degradation rate of these solar cells are very fast.
• The improvement process is still going on to get a better version
of plastic solar cells.
4. Comparison between Conventional SC and Plastic SC :-
Conventional solar cell Plastic solar cells
• Made of some special materials • Constructed using Nano-
called semiconductors. technology.
• Expensive because of • Cost is less because less material
manufacturing process. is required .
• Requires large space. • Compact and requires less space.
• Efficiency is less. • Efficiency is more.
• It won’t work under cloudy • Due to Nano-technology, it can
conditions. work even on a cloudy day.
• It can’t harness the sun’s • It can harness the sun’s invisible
invisible infrared rays. infrared rays.
5. CONCLUSION :-
Harnessing of non-conventional energies is a human necessity. The
conventional solar cells which we are using are not yet reached the
economically feasibility . Hence the concept and developing a plastic
solar cell would account to economically feasibility and mass usage.
Plastic solar cells help in exploiting the infrared radiations from the
sun’s rays . The major advantage they enjoy is that they can even work
on cloudy days, which is not possible former. They are more compact
and less bulky. Scientists are working on making this more cheap.
If the solar farms can become a reality, it could possibly solve the
planet’s problem of depending too much on the fossil fuels, without a
chance of even polluting the environment .
6. References :-
1. https://en.m.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_solar_cell
2. www.frontiersin.org
3. www.sciencedirect.com
4. www.slideshare.net
5. www.quora.com
6. https://www.elprocus.com
7. Google images