Optical losses represent one of the primary obstacles to increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells. The recommended solution to minimize optical losses is the use of plasmonic metal nanoparticles; however, they act as recombination centers within the solar cell construction, leading to a decrease in performance. The goal of this article is to introduce cobalt/graphene nanoparticles into the solar cell to minimize the optical losses. An ultra-thin film silicon PIN solar cell of dimensions (400 ×400 ×900) nm3 with ring metal contact shape was designed and numerically investigated using COMSOL Multiphysics software version 6.2 by the finite element method (FEM). Core/shell cobalt-graphene (Co/Gr) nanoparticles are periodically introduced into the cell between two layers (electron transport and active) in a ratio of 50:50 with an inter-spacing of a similar diameter. The Co/Gr parameters, number of nanoparticles (2, 4, 6), radius (10, 20, 30) nm, and shell thickness (1, 2, 4) nm were extensively studied. In addition, the arrangement of the core/shell nanoparticle material was considered. The results manifest the best performance of the proposed cell at 4 nanoparticles of 30 nm radius with 2 nm shell thickness for Co/Gr nanoparticles to get a maximum photocurrent of 26.28 mA/cm2. It is concluded that the optical losses of the Co/Gr core/shell nanoparticles embedded in an ultra-thin film silicon solar cell are significantly reduced owing to the increment in the absorption and hence the photocurrent. This enhancement opens a new avenue for further improvements.
In this work, porous silicon (PS) are fabricated using electrochemical etching (ECE) process for p-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers of (100) orientation. The structural, morphological and electrical properties of PS synthesized at etching current density of (10, 20, 30) mA/cm2 at constant etching time 10 min are studied. From X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement, the value of FWHM is in general decreases with increasing current density for p-type porous silicon (p-PS). Atomic force microscope (AFM) showed that for p-PS the average pore diameter decreases at 20 mA. Porous silicon which formed on silicon will be a junction so I-V characteristics have been studied in the dark to calculate ideality factor (n), and saturation current (Is
... Show MoreSolar photovoltaic (PV) system has emerged as one of the most promising technology to generate clean energy. In this work, the performance of monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic module is studied through observing the effect of necessary parameters: solar irradiation and ambient temperature. The single diode model with series resistors is selected to find the characterization of current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V) curves by determining the values of five parameters ( ). This model shows a high accuracy in modeling the solar PV module under various weather conditions. The modeling is simulated via using MATLAB/Simulink software. The performance of the selected solar PV module is tested experimentally for differ
... Show MoreWe conducted a theoretical study on the potential use of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) as the high-index material in quarter-wave-stack Bragg mirrors for cavity quantum electrodynamics applications. Compared to conventionally employed
The use of silicon carbide is increasing significantly in the fields of research and technology. Topological indices enable data gathering on algebraic graphs and provide a mathematical framework for analyzing the chemical structural characteristics. In this paper, well-known degree-based topological indices are used to analyze the chemical structures of silicon carbides. To evaluate the features of various chemical or non-chemical networks, a variety of topological indices are defined. In this paper, a new concept related to the degree of the graph called "bi-distance" is introduced, which is used to calculate all the additive as well as multiplicative degree-based indices for the isomer of silicon carbide, Si2
... Show MoreNumerical Investigation was done for steady state laminar mixed convection and thermally and hydrodynamic fully developed flow through horizontal rectangular duct including circular core with two cases of time periodic boundary condition, first case on the rectangular wall while keeping core wall constant and other on both the rectangular duct and core walls. The used governing equations are continuity momentum and energy equations. These equations are normalized and solved using the Vorticity-Stream function and the Body Fitted Coordinates (B.F.C.) methods. The Finite Difference approach with the Line Successive Over Relaxation (LSOR) method is used to obtain all the computational results the (B.F.C.) method is used to generate th
... Show MoreA plastic tubes used as absorber of active flat plate solar collector (FPSC) for heating water were studied numerically and experimentally. The set-up is located in Babylon (republic of Iraq) 43.80 East longitude and 32.30 North latitude with titled of 450 toward the south direction. The study involved three dimensions mathematical model for flat coil plastic absorber which solved by FLUENT-ANSYS-R.18 program. Experiments were conducted at outdoor conditions for clear days on January and February 2018 with various water volume flow rates namely (500, 750, 1000, 1250, and 1500 Liter per hour LPH) on each month for Reynolds number range of (1 x 104 to 5 x 104) th
... Show MoreThis study concerns a new type of heat exchangers, which is that of shell-and-double concentric tube heat exchangers. The case studies include both design calculations and performance calculations.
The new heat exchanger design was conducted according to Kern method. The volumetric flow rates were 3.6 m3/h and 7.63 m3/h for the hot oil and water respectively. The experimental parameters studied were: temperature, flow rate of hot oil, flow rate of cold water and pressure drop.
A comparison was made for the theoretical and experimental results and it was found that the percentage error for the hot oil outlet temperature was (- 1.6%). The percentage
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