HYU-UOS-KRICT Research Team Achieves World's Best Efficiency in Semi-transparent Organic Solar Cells

Hanyang University announced on December 28 that the co-research team from Hanyang University's Department of Chemistry professor Choi Hyo-sung, The University of Seoul's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Kim Hyeok, and Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) Dr. Ko Seo-jin’s achieved the world's best performance in translucent organic solar cells field with reasonable estimation of translucent organic solar cells via 3D optical simulation.

Translucent solar cells are attracting considerable attention in future technologies as they even serve as solar cells in the form of building and automobile glass windows. In real life, the solar transmittance of tinted building windows and automobile glass is 30%. However, the translucent solar cell developed by the research team shows a higher transmittance of 40%. In addition, the power production rate through solar power reaches 10%, performing the functions of solar cells as well as windows.

The research team said they focused on developing silver nanowire transparent electrodes to improve the performance of translucent solar cells. Unlike ordinary metal upper electrodes with low transmittance, silver nanowire transparent upper electrodes have attracted attention as a promising electrode material for translucent solar cells because of their low cost, low sheet resistance, easy processability, and especially, high transmittance.

However, in order to apply such a transparent electrode as a translucent solar cell upper electrode, a lot of effort was required because optimization must be made through experimental trial and error.

Therefore, the research team succeeded in accurate estimation of  silver nanowire transparent electrodes' performance and light transmittance for the first time in the world. In addition, they rationally designed a translucent organic solar cell and applied it to actual experiments, which led the world's best performance.

Moreover, the silver nanowire manufacturing process technology established based on 3D optical simulation presented a performance table under various conditions, and the researchers succeeded in transferring the technology with Semi-Elec Co., Ltd. in recognition of their "technical skills in manufacturing transparent upper electrodes for a wide range of translucent solar cells."

Professor Choi Hyo-sung said, "We tried to reduce unnecessary trial and error by researchers in the translucent solar cell field. As a result, we were able to secure technology to manufacture silver nanowire transparent upper electrodes." He added, “We hope that this research will lead to rapid development in the field and see commercialized translucent solar cells as soon as possible."

The research was carried out by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Mid-sized Research Support Project, Energy Technology Development Business) with the support of the National Research Foundation of Korea and Hanyang University's in-school research support center, and was published in Advanced Energy Materials, a world-renowned energy field magazine.