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Silicon (Si) plays a central role in the emerging energy technologies of the twenty first century. Silicon is directly involved in energy production, in energy storage, in energy distribution and in energy utilization. Silicon also plays a role in control systems, in energy network management, in energy related information technology and in all aspects of risk assessment & risk management as they...
Professor R. F. T. Stepto was listed as being an Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester in England when he died on 13 th September 2015. To his family, to his friends, to his students and to his colleagues, Bob Stepto was much much much more than can be captured in this all-too-brief academic title. Professor Stepto was a wonderful man and he was a great scholar...
We report the properties of Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin films on glass substrates and its effect on the efficiency of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells as the back reflector. Oriented AZO thin films were grown using DC magnetron sputtering by varying Ar gas flow rates. The influence of Ar flow rate on the structural, electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films suitable for transparent conducting...
Surface texturing methods using an alkaline solution for monocrystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells have been widely accepted to improve cell performance. However, multicrystalline Si (mc-Si) cells are difficult to be texturized by alkaline etching, because the grains in the substrates are randomly oriented. In this study, we considered a HF/HNO 3/H 2O acid solution for texturing the mc-Si cells. The conversion...
Solvent-free polymer electrolytes are critical for improving the performance of electrochemical devices. With the aim of developing a new silicon-based polymer electrolyte that does not contain poly(ethylene oxide) or ionic-liquid moieties, we present the synthesis, spectroscopic, thermogravimetric, and electrochemical characterization of a polymer combining flexible polysiloxanes with polar silatrane...
A silicon based composite (Si@SiO2/CNTs) with outstanding electrochemistry performance has been easily synthesized using a spray drying method; The composite microsphere is mainly made up of carbon nanotubes and the prepared nano silicon particles. With the help of a silane coupling agent, carbon nanotubes tightly intertwined with nano silicon particles and formed microspheres together. On the surface...
In this work, through modeling we propose how the choice of the TCO material, its texturing and optimization of band gap of a-Si:H layers help to increase the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cells. While selecting plane and textured indium tin oxide (ITO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) as TCOs, the solar cell parameters and performance are examined as a function of band gap of different a-Si:H layers. The optimum...
Multi-crystalline silicon is an important material with advantages of low-production cost and high conversion efficiency for photovoltaic solar cells. Directional solidifi cation has become the main technique for producing mc-Si ingots for solar cell applications. The study is performed in the framework of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation in the Boussinesq approximation with convection-conduction...
In this article, copper zinc phosphate glass doped with 5 % barium oxide has an amazing optical property due to its application as bandpass filters. Typically, the glass conventional casting with chemical composition 42P2O5–(14- x)Na2O–39ZnO–5BaO–xCu2O where (x = 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) was formed. The density was measured using the conventional Archimedes method and the molar volume was calculated. The...
Silicon nanowire homojunction p-n solar cells were fabricated using Zn and Au metals as catalysts for growing the NWs. This design consisted of SiNWs, doped as p and n-types, catalyzed with Zn and Au catalysts to fabricate p-n homojunctions within each wire. The surface morphology, structure, and photovoltaic properties were investigated. The morphology for each of the catalyzed SiNWs was significantly...
The borosilicate glass is the most common industrial solution host barrier used for the immobilization of low-level wastes for its excellent chemical durability and mechanical properties. The borosilicate glass samples were prepared in a muffle furnace at a temperature 1300 °C, glass samples were then annealed in a furnace at 400 °C. In this study, density, microhardness, pH and the durability of...
The chemical reactions in the SiCl4-Si-H2 system using a low temperature hydrogenation technique related to the Siemens process were studied based on thermodynamics. The diagrams of standard Gibbs free energy of formation and equilibrium constants for seven reactions used as a function of temperature in this system were calculated and plotted for a temperature range of 473 K to 1073 K. It showed that...
Purification of metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si), using gallium as the impurity getter has been investigated. The technique involves growing Si dendrites from an alloy of MG-Si with Ga, followed by their separation by acid leaching. The morphologies of impurity phases in the MG-Si and the Ga-Si alloy were investigated during the solvent refining process. Effective segregation ratios of B and P...
SnO2-p/n-Si thin film solar cells were prepared by a vacuum evaporation technique, and SnO2 studied as a transparent antireflection coating with the n–type silicon wafer to fabricate a thin film. The oxidation of the Si surface takes place simultaneously with the evaporation process. Dark forward and reverse I-V characteristics for the SnO2–p/n-Si structure in the temperature range (25–300 °C), for...
High efficiency multicrystalline solar cells must improve performance while replacing higher cost monocrystalline silicon with lower cost multicrystalline silicon. Composite silicon dioxide-titanium dioxide (SiO2−TiO2) films are deposited on a large area of 15.6×15.6 cm2 textured multicrystalline silicon solar cells to increase the incident light trapped within the device. This is being achieved through...
In this study, we examine the optical properties and unique features of a novel design of a parabola nanocone consisting of a homogenous shell-like cover layer of crystalline silicon (c-Si) and an Ag core which provides an enhanced absorption efficiency and significant photocurrent conversion during exposure to an incident light. Determining the geometrical sizes of the c-Si/Ag parabola nanocone,...
In the present work, a manually chromatic classification of Ouargla dunes sand has been carried out. According to its visual color, eight chromatic types of sand have been obtained: transparent (yellow, orange and red), and opaque (white, milky, gray, black and red). According to the main chemical compositions of sand, both XRD and FTIR have divided the chromatically sorted sand into three groups:...
Silicon compounds are mentioned four times in the poem Venus and Adonis. This poem was published in London, England by William Shakespeare in the year 1593 It is worth noting that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has also been cited twice before in the journal SILICON since its introduction in 2009. One such citation to Shakespeare was under the sub-header of the journal that is entitled POETS’ CORNER...
Tungsten trioxide (WO3) thin films were prepared incorporating various organic acid additives by the sol-gel spin coating technique. They were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Visible analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dc electrical conductivity. From XRD, the crystal phase, average grain size and structural parameters of WO3 thin films were found to vary owing to different...
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