VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

BELAGAVI -590018

A Seminar Report
on

“INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELLS”

Submitted in the Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the final year Undergraduate course
in

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Submitted by
Ms. Srushti Gurlahosur
USN: 2MM17EC029

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Basavaraj Tigadi.

2019-20

MARATHA MANDAL’S ENGINEERING COLLEGE,

BELAGAVI-591 113
R.S.No.104, Halbhavi, P.O.New Vantmuri, Belagavi-591 113

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 MARATHA MANDAL’S ENGINEERING COLLEGE,
BELAGAVI- 591 113
R.S.No.104, Halbhavi, P.O.NewVantmuri, Belagavi-591 113

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. SRUSHTI GURLAHOSUR, bearing USN

2MM17EC029 of final year has satisfactorily completed his seminar on “INFRARED

PLASTIC POLAR CELLS” for the academic year 2019-20, as prescribed by

Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi.

Signature of the Guide Signature of the HOD

(Dr.Basavaraj Tigadi ) (Prof. MANI.C)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It gives me an immense pleasure to express my gratitude and respect to all those who
guided me in the completion of this seminar work.

I am glad to convey my sincere regards to our Principal Dr. Vinita V. Sondur of

MARATHA MANDAL’S ENGINEERING COLLEGE, for providing me an opportunity to
take up this seminar report.

I am thankful to our H.O.D. Prof. Mani C, and Seminar guide Dr. Basavaraj Tigadi
for helping me throughout the seminar work. I am also thankful to all the staff members who
directly or indirectly contributed their efforts to complete this seminar report.

I also thank my entire classmate and friends for their kind help in bringing out this seminar
report in stipulated time. The report would be incomplete if I do not thank my parents and
well wishers for their moral support during the course of the seminar report.

-Srushti Gurlahosur

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8TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter1. Introduction 03

Chapter2. Conventional Solar Cell 05

Chapter3. Generation Of Solar Cells 07

Chapter4. How Do Solar Cells Work 08

Chapter5.
Infrared Plastic Solar Cell 11

Chapter6. Application And Improvement 18

Chapter7. Advantage ,Disadvantages Of Infrared Plastic Solar 19

Cell

Chapter8. Conclusions 20

References

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 INFRARED PLASTIC POLAR CELLS

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Number Title Page
No.

2.1 Silicon Solar Cell 03

4.1 Intrinsic Silicon 05

4.2 Solar Cell 07

6.1 Infrared Plastic Solar Cell 08

09
6.2 Basic Structure Plastic Solar Cell

6.3 Schematic Device Structure For Polymer Fullerene Bulk 10

Heterojuctions Solar Cells

6.4 Tiny Plastic Nano Solar Cell 25

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ABSTRACT

Nanotechnology is the nexus of sciences. Nanotechnology is the engineering of

tiny machines - the projected ability to build things from the bottom up using
techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, highly advanced
products. It includes anything smaller than 100 nanometers with novel
properties. As the pool of available resources is being exhausted, the demand
for resources that are everlasting and eco-friendly is increasing day by day.
One such form is the solar energy. The advent of solar energy just about solved
all the problems. As such solar energy is very useful. But the conventional solar
cells that are used to harness solar energy are less efficient and cannot
function properly on a cloudy day. The use of nanotechnology in the solar cells
created an opportunity to overcome this problem, thereby increasing the
efficiency. This paper deals with an offshoot in the advancement of
nanotechnology, its implementation in solar cells and its advantage over the
conventional commercial solar cell.

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF :INFRARED PLASTIC POLAR

CELLS

WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY?
The pursuit of nanotechnology comprises a wide variety of disciplines: chemistry, physics,
mechanical engineering, materials science, molecular biology, and computer science.

In order to the miniaturization of integrated circuits well into the present century, it is likely that
present day, nano-scale or nano electronic device designs will be replaced with new designs for
devices that take advantage of the quantum mechanical effects that dominate on the much smaller
,nanometer scale .

Nanotechnology is often referred to as general purpose technology. That is because in its mature form
it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. It offers better built,
longer lasting, cleaner, safer and smarter products for the home, for ammunition, for medicine and for
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industries for ages. These properties of nanotechnology have been made use of in solar cells. Solar
energy is really an abundant source that is renewable and pollution free. This form of energy has very
wide applications ranging from small household items, calculators to larger things like two wheelers,
cars etc. they make use of solar cell that coverts the energy from the sun into required form.
Nanotechnology is the engineering of tiny machines - the projected ability to build things from the
bottom up using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, highly advanced
products. It includes anything smaller than 100 nanometers with novel properties. As the pool of
available resources is being exhausted, the demand for resources that are everlasting and ecofriendly is
increasing day by day. One such form is the solar energy. The advent of solar energy just about solved
all the problems. As such solar energy is very useful. But the conventional solar cells mainly due to
the construction process and also the materials used in it have a limited number of applications. Latest
inventions have opened doors to whole lot of applications that is creeping in to use the solar panels
that have been developed out of plastic. In the sector of harnessing renewable form of energy, silicon
as an element failed to make a mark in the wide range of Shraddha R. Jogdhankar, Channappa Bhyri
Impending Power Demand and Innovative Energy Paths - ISBN: 978-93-83083-84-8 334 applications
of solar panels. The use of nanotechnology in the solar cells created an opportunity to overcome this
problem, thereby increasing the efficiency. This paper deals with an offshoot in the advancement of
nanotechnology, its implementation in solar cells and its advantage over the conventional commercial
solar cell In order to the miniaturization of integrated circuits well into the present century, it is likely
that present day, nano-scale or nano electronic device designs will be replaced with new designs for
devices that take advantage of the quantum mechanical effects that dominate on the much smaller,
nanometer scale . Nanotechnology is often referred to as general purpose technology. That is because
in its mature form it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. It
offers better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer and smarter products for the home, for ammunition, for
medicine and for industries for ages. These properties of nanotechnology have been made use of in
solar cells.

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CHAPTER 2

WORKING OF CONVENTIONAL SOLAR CELL:

Basically conventional type solar cells Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of special materials called
semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently the most commonly used. Basically, when light
strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that
the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons
loose, allowing them to flow freely. PV cells also all have one or more electric fields that act to force
electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current,
and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off to use
externally.

For example, the current can power a calculator. This current, together with the cell's voltage (which
is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can
produce.

Conventional semiconductor solar cells are made by polycrystalline silicon or in the case of
highest efficiency ones crystalline gallium arsenide.

But by this type of solar cell, it is observed that, only 35% of the suns total energy falling on it
could be judiciously used. Also, this is not so favorable on cloudy days, thus creating a problem. This
major drawback led to the thought of development of a new type of solar cell embedded with
nanotechnology. The process involved in this is almost the same as explained earlier. But the basic
difference lies in the absorption of the wavelength of light from the sun.

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Fig 2.1:Silicon Solar cell

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CHAPTER 3

GENERATION OF SOLAR CELLS

3.1 First Generation :Crystalline Silicon Cell Technology

First generation solar cells are the larger silicon-based photovoltaic cells,silicon’s ablity to remain a
semiconductor at higher temperature has made it a highly attractive raw material for solar
panels.silicon;s abundance,however,does not case the challenges of harvesting and processing it into
a usable material for microchips and silicon panels .solar cells,use silicon wafers consisting of Silicon
or Germanium that are doped with Phosphorus and Boron in a pn- junction. Silicon cells have a quite
high efficiency, but very pure silicon is needed, and due to theenergy-requiring process, the price is
high compared to the power output. Crystalline SiliconSolar Cellsdominate 80-90% of solar cell
market due to their high efficiency, despite their highmanufacturing costs

3.2 Second Generation: Thin Film Solar Cell Technology

Second generation solar cell, also known as thin-film solar cell (TFSC) or thin-film photovoltaiccell
(TFPV), is made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin films) of photovoltaic materialon a
substrate. They are significantly cheaper to produce than first generation cells but havelower
efficiencies. The great advantage of thin-film solar cells, along with low cost, is theirflexibility and
versatility to be used in varied environments. This has led to aesthetically pleasingsolar innovations
such as solar shingles, solar glass and solar panels that can be rolled out onto aroof or other surface.
The most successful second generation materials have been cadmiumtelluride (CdTe), copper indium
gallium selenide(CIGS), amorphous silicon and microamorphous silicon. The thickness range of such
a layer is wide and varies from a few nanometersto tens of micrometers. These materials are applied
in a thin film to a supporting substrate suchas glass or ceramics reducing material mass and therefore
costs. It is predicted that secondgeneration cells will dominate the residential solar market.

3.3 Third Generation: Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Technology

The electrochemical dye solar cell was invented in 1988 by Professor Graetzel of
LausannePolytechnique, in Switzerland. The "Graetzel" dye cell uses dye molecules adsorbed
innanocrystalline oxide semiconductors, such as TiO2, to collect sunlight. Dye cells employrelatively
inexpensive materials such as glass, Titania powder, and carbon powder. Graetzel'scell is composed
of a porous layer of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, covered with a moleculardye that absorbs
sunlight, like the chlorophyll does in green leaves. Third generation solar cellsare the cutting edge of
solar technology. These solar cells can exceed the theoretical solarconversion efficiency limit for a
single energy threshold material. Current research is targetingconversion efficiencies of 30-60%
while retaining low cost materials and manufacturing techniques.

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CHAPTER 4

HOW DO SOLAR CELLS WORK?

Solar cells, which largely are made from crystalline silicon work on the principle ofPhotoelectric
Effect that this semiconductor exhibits. Silicon in its purest form- Intrinsic Silicon-is doped with a
dopant impurity to yield Extrinsic Silicon of desired characteristic (p-type or n-type Silicon). Working
of Solar cells can thus be based on crystalline structure of Intrinsic andExtrinsic Silicon. When p and n
type silicon combine they result in formation of potential barrier. These and more are discussed below.

4.1 Pure Silicon (Intrinsic) Crystalline Structure:

Silicon has some special chemical properties, especially in its crystalline form. An atom ofsilicon
has 14 electrons, arranged in three different shells. The first two shells- which hold twoand eight
electrons respectively- are completely full. The outer shell, however, is only half fullwith just four
electrons (Valence electrons). A silicon atom will always look for ways to fill upits last shell, and to
do this, it will share electrons with four nearby atoms. It's like each atomholds hands with its
neighbours, except that in this case, each atom has four hands joined to fourneighbours. That's what
forms the crystalline structure. The only problem is that pure crystallinesilicon is a poor conductor of
electricity because none of its electrons are free to move about,unlike the electrons in more optimum
conductors like copper

Fig 4.1 Intrinsic Silicon

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Impurity Added Silicon (Extrinsic): P-type and N-type Semiconductors:

Extrinsic silicon in a solar cell has added impurity atoms purposefully mixed in with the siliconatoms,
maybe one for every million silicon atoms. Phosphorous has five electrons in its outershell. It bonds
with its silicon neighbour atoms having valence of 4, but in a sense, the phosphorous has one electron
that doesn't have anyone to bond with. It doesn't form part of a bond, but there is a positive proton in
the phosphorous nucleus holding it in place. When energyis added to pure silicon, in the form of heat,
it causes a few electrons to break free of their bondsand leave their atoms. A hole is left behind in each
case. These electrons, called free carriers,then wander randomly around the crystalline lattice looking
for another hole to fall into and carryan electrical current. In Phosphorous-doped Silicon, it takes a lot
less energy to knock loose oneof "extra" phosphorous electrons because they aren't tied up in a bond
with any neighbouringatoms. As a result, most of these electrons break free, and release a lot more
free carriers than in pure silicon. The process of adding impurities on purpose is called doping, and
when doped with phosphorous, the resulting silicon is called N-type ("n" for negative) because of the
prevalence offree electrons. N-type doped silicon is a much better conductor than pure silicon.The
other partof a typical solar cell is doped with the element boron, which has only three electrons in its
outershell instead of four, to become P-type silicon. Instead of having free electrons, P-type ("p" for
positive) has free openings and carries the opposite (positive) charge

4.3 Formation of Potential Barrier and Photoelectric Effect:

The electric tric field is formed when the N-type and P-type silicon come into contact. Suddenly,
thefree electrons on the N side combine the openings on the P side. Right at the junction, theycombine
and form something of a barrier, making it harder and harder for electrons on the N sideto cross over
to the P side (called POTENTIAL BARRIER). Eventually, equilibrium is reached,and an electric field
separating the two sides is set up. This electric field acts as a diode, allowing(and even pushing)
electrons to flow from the P side to the N side, but not the other way around.It's like a hill -- electrons
can easily go down the hill (to the N side), but can't climb it (to the Pside)

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.
Fig 4.2 Solar Cell

When light, in the form of photons, hits solar cell, its energy breaks apart electron-biola pairs
Photoelectric effect). Each photon with enough energy will normally free exactly me electron,
resulting in a free hole as well. If this happens close enough to the electric field, or if free electron
and free hole happen to wander into its range of influence, the field will send the electron to the N
side and the hole to the P side. This causes further disruption of electrical neutrality, and if an
external current path is provided, electrons will flow through the path to the P side to unite with holes
that the electric field sent there, doing work for us along the way. The electron flow provides the
current, and the cell's electric field causes a voltage.

Silicon is very shiny material, which com send photons bouncing away before energizing the
electrons, so an antireflective coating is applied to reduce those losses. The final step is to install
something that will protect the cell from the external elements- often a glass cover plate. PV modules
are generally made by connecting several individual cells together to achieve useful levels of voltage
and current, and putting them in a sturdy frame complete with positive and negative terminals.

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CHAPTER 6
INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the suns power into electric energy
even on a cloudy day.

Fig 6.1: Infrared Plastic Solar Cell

Plastic solar cells are not new .But existing materials are only able to harness the sun’s
visible light. While half of the sun’s power lies in the visible spectrum, the other half lies in the
infrared spectrum. The new material is first plastic compound that is able to harness infrared portion.
Every warm body emits heat. This heat is emitted even by man and by animals, even when it is dark
outside.
The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the 1stgeneration solar cells that can
harness the sun’s invisible infrared rays. This breakthrough made us to believe that plastic solar cells
could one day become more efficient than the current solar cell. The researchers combined specially
designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy
in the infrared.
With further advances the new PLASTIC SOLAR CELL could allow up to 30% of sun’s
radiant energy to be harnessed completely when compared to only 6% in today plastic best plastic
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solar cells.
A large amount of sun’s energy could be harnessed through solar farms and used to power all
our energy needs. This could potentially displace other source of electrical production that produce
green house gases like coal.
Solar energy reaching the earth is 10000 times than what we consume. If we could cover
0.1% of the earth’s surface with the solar farms we could replace all our energy habits with a source of
power which is clear and renewable.
The first crude solar cells have achieved efficiencies of today’s standard commercial
photovoltaic’s the best solar cell, which are very expensive semiconductor laminates convert at most,
35% of the sun’s energy into electricity.

MORPHOLOGY AND DESIGN

Fig 6.2: basic structure of plastic solar cell

The plastic solar cell created by the Berkeley research group is actually a hybrid, comprised of tiny
nanorods dispersed in an organic polymer or plastic. Figure 2 shows the hybrid plastic solar cells has
nanorod/polymer layer sandwiched between two electrodes. The active layer, a mere 200 nanometer
thick, is a jumble of nanorods embedded in a semiconducting polymer.
Vacuum evaporation and solution processing techniques are the most commonly used thin film
preparation methods in the production of plastic solar cells. Polymers decompose under excessive heat
and have too large molar mass for evaporation. Therefore, most polymer-based photovoltaic elements

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are solution processed at low temperatures. The printing/coating techniques are used to deposit
conjugated semiconducting polymers.
Donor-acceptor blends can be prepared by dissolving donor and acceptor components in a common
solvent (or solvent mixture) this is called solution processing and Solution processing requires soluble
polymers. Blends are deposited by using one of the techniques mentioned above. Sometimes, a soluble
monomer is cast as a thin film using a post deposition polymerization reaction afterward. Soluble
precursor polymers can also be converted into the final semiconducting Shraddha R. Jogdhankar,
Channappa Bhyri Impending Power Demand and Innovative Energy Paths - ISBN: 978-93-83083-84-
8 336 form with a post deposition conversion reaction. The advantage of this latter method is that the
resulting conjugated polymer thin films are insoluble.
For plastic solar cells, spin-coating, doctor blading, as well as screen-printing methods were applied.
Such large scale printing/coating techniques open up the possibility for an upscaling of the production
with low-energy consumption.

Fig 6.3: Schematic device structure for polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells.
The active layer is sandwiched between two contacts: an indium-tin-oxide electrode coated with a hole
transport layer PEDOT:PSS and an aluminum top electrode.
The plastic solar cells are fabricated in sandwich geometry. As substrates, transparent, conducting
electrodes (for example, glass or plastic covered with ITO) are used. ITO (indium tin oxide) electrodes
are transparent and conductive but expensive. Alternatives for ITO are searched for, and nanotube
network electrodes potentially work as well. The substrate electrode can be structured by chemical

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etching. On the transparent conducting substrate, PEDOT:PSS, poly(ethylenedioxythiophene) doped

with polystyrenesulfonic acid, is coated from an aqueous solution. This PEDOT:PSS layer improves
the surface quality of the ITO electrode as well as facilitates the hole injection/extraction.
Furthermore, the work function of this electrode can be changed by chemical/ electrochemical redox
reactions of the PEDOT layer.
The active layers are coated using solution or vacuum deposition techniques as mentioned above. The
nanorods which are derived from 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-[6,6]-
methanofullerene(PCBM) are mixed with a plastic semiconductor called (P3HT) p3ht-poly-(3-
hexylthiophene) a transparent electrode is coated with the mixture. An aluminum coating acting as the
back electrode completed the device. The nanorods act like wires. When they absorb light of a specific
wavelength, they generate an electron plus an electron hole-a vacancy in the crystal that moves around
just like an electron. The electron travels the length of the rod until it is collected by aluminum
electrode. The hole is transferred to the plastic, which is known as a hole-carrier, and conveyed to the
electrode, creating a current

WORKING OF PLASTIC SOLAR CELL:

The solar cell created is actually a hybrid, comprised of tiny nanorods dispersed in an
organic polymer or plastic. A layer only 200 nanometers thick is sandwiched between electrodes and
can produce at present about .7 volts. The electrode layers and nanorods /polymer layers could be
applied in separate coats, making production fairly easy. And unlike today’s semiconductor-based
photovoltaic devices, plastic solar cells can be manufactured in solution in a beaker without the need
for clean rooms or vacuum chambers.

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The technology takes advantage of recent advances in nanotechnology specifically the production
of nanocrystals and nanorods. These are chemically pure clusters of 100 to 100000 atoms with
dimensions of the order of a nanometer, or a billionth of a meter. Because of their small size, they
exhibit unusual and interesting properties governed by quantum mechanics, such as the absorption of
different colors of light depending upon theirsize. Nanorods were made of a reliable size out of
cadmium selenide, a semi conducting material.
Nanorods are manufactured in a beaker containing cadmium selenide, aiming for rods of
diameter-7 nanometers to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The length of the nanorods may be
approximately 60nanometers.Then the nanorods are mixed with a plastic semiconductor called p3ht-
poly-(3-hexylthiophene) a transparent electrode is coated with the mixture. The thickness, 200
nanometers-a thousandth the thickness of a human hair-is a factor of 10 less than the micron-thickness
of semiconductor solar cells. An aluminium coating acting as the back electrode completed the device.
The nanorods act like wires. When they absorb light of a specific wavelength, they generate an
electron plus an electron hole-a vacancy in the crystal that moves around just like an electron. The
electron travels the length of the rod until it is collected by aluminium electrode. The hole is
transferred to the plastic, which is known as a hole-carrier, and conveyed to the electrode, creating a
current

Fig 6.4:Tiny Plastic Nano Solar Cell

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CHAPTER 7

APPLICATIONS
1. Silicon possesses some nanoscale properties. This is being exploited in the development of a
super thin disposable solar panel poster which could offer the rural dwellers a cheap and an
alternative source of power. Most people living in remote areas are not linked to national
electricity grid and use batteries or run their own generator to supply their power needs.
Disposal solar panels can be made in thin sheets with about 6-10 sheets stacked together and
made into a poster can help them to some extent in this regard. This poster could be mounted
behind a window or attached to a cabinet.
2. Like paint the compound can also be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable
electricity.
3. Any chip coated in the material could power cell phone or other wireless devices.

4. A hydrogen powered car painted with the film could potentially convert energy into
electricity to continually recharge the car’s battery.

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5.One day solar farms consisting of plastic materials could be rolled across deserts to
generate enough clear energy to supply the entire planet’s power needs.

IMPROVEMENTS:
Some of the obvious improvements include better light collection and concentration, which
already are employed in commercial solar cells. Significant improvements can be made in the plastic,
nanorods mix, too, ideally packing the nanorods closer together, perpendicular to the electrodes, using
minimal polymer, or even none-the nanorods would transfer their electrons more directly to the
electrode. In their first-generation solar cells, the nanorods are jumbled up in the polymer, leading to
losses of current via electron-hole recombination and thus lower efficiency.
They also hope to tune the nanorods to absorb different colors to span the spectrum of sunlight.
An eventual solar cell has three layers each made of nanorods that absorb at different wavelength.

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Chapter 8

ADVANTAGES

Plastic solar cells are quite a lot useful in the coming future. This is because of the large number of
advantages it has got. Some of the major advantages are:
1. They are considered to be 30% more efficient when compared to conventional solar cells.
2. They are more efficient and more practical in application.
3. Traditional solar cells are bulky panels. This is very compact.
4. Conventional solar cells are only used for large applications with big budgets. But the plastic
solar cells are feasible as they can be even sewn into fabric- thus having vast applications.
5. Flexible, roller processed solar cells have the potential to turn the sun’s power into a clean,
green, consistent source of energy.

DISADVANTAGES

1. The biggest problem with this is cost effectiveness. But that could change with new material.
But chemists have found a way to make cheap plastic solar cells flexible enough to paint onto
any surface and potentially able to provide electricity for wearable electronics or other low
power devices.
2. Relatively shorter life span when continuously exposed to sunlight.
3. Could possibly require higher maintenance and constant monitoring.

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CHAPTER 9

CONCLUSION

S Plastic solar cells help in exploiting the infrared radiation from the sun’s rays. They are more
effective when compared to the conventional solar cell. The major advantage they enjoy is that they
can even work on cloudy days, which is not possible in the former. They are more compact and less
bulky.
Though at present, cost is a major drawback, it is bound be solved in the near future as scientists
are working in that direction.
As explained earlier, if the solar farms can become a reality, it could possibly solve the planets
problem of depending too much on the fossil fuels, without a chance of even polluting the
environment.

REFERENCES

1. Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications: Edelstein, A. S., Cammarata, R. C.,

Eds.; Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol and Philadelphia, 1996.

2. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology; 1987. Drexler, K. Eric, Doubleday; New York
3. A gentle introduction to the next big idea-Mark A. Ratner, Daniel Ratner.
4. Introduction to nanotechnology- Charles P Poole, Frank J Owens
5. The clean power revolution- Troy Helming
6. Solar energy-fundamentals, design, modeling, applications- G.N. Tiwari
7. Thin film solar cells next generation photovoltaic and its application- Y Hamakawa

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