The seminar will take place at the Sala d'Actes Carles Miravitlles but it will also be possible to be followed online:
Thin film photovoltaic materials based on earth abundant elements
by Edgardo Saucedo, Electronic Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Monday, 27 September 2021, at 12 pm
ICMAB-Sala d'Actes Carles Miravitlles and Online by Zoom. Register here to attend.
Abstract:
In the last few years, the interest and research on new thin film inorganic materials for photovoltaic (PV) applications have largely increased. There are two main motivations for this: the necessity to substitute scarce and/or expensive materials currently used in the thin film photovoltaic industry (such as In, Ga or Te); and the necessity of materials with new properties that are required for non-conventional PV applications (flexible, transparent). In this context, kesterite type semiconductors, including Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe), Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), and Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) are recognized as one of the most relevant and promising thin film photovoltaic technologies.
In the first part of the presentation, the most relevant progresses achieved for kesterite in the last years will be reviewed, focusing on the recent strategies followed to improve their efficiency, that are mainly based on the partial cationic and anionic substitution including Cu by Ag, Zn by Cd, Mn and Mg, Sn by Ge, extended to the S, Se and Te substitutions as possible anions in the structure.
In the second part of the presentation, other relevant emerging photovoltaic materials will be discussed, including oxides, pnictides and halides, giving insights about the most promising ones for different PV applications.
Keywords: emerging materials, thin film photovoltaics, solar cells, chalcogenides
Acknowledgments: H2020 Programme project SENSATE (H2020-ERC-CoG-2019-866018)
Bio:
Dr. Edgardo Saucedo received his PhD in Materials Physic at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain in 2007 with a FPU fellowship. In 2007, he joined the Institut de Recherche et Développement sur l’Énergie Photovoltaïque IRDEP (Paris, France), with a CNRS associated Researcher fellowship, working in the development and optoelectronic characterization of CIGS low cost based solar cells. In 2009, he joined NEXCIS, a spin-off created from IRDEP, to further pursue their training in photovoltaic technology. From 2010-2020 he was the Deputy Head of the Solar Energy Materials and Systems Group at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) working in new low cost materials and processes for thin film photovoltaic devices. In 2020 he becomes Professor and Researcher at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC).
He holds five patents and has authored or co-authored more than 238 papers and he has more than 350 contributions to the most important International Conferences. He has been involved in more than 40 European and Spanish Projects, and he was the Coordinator of the ITN Marie Curie network Kestcell (www.kestcells.eu), the research and innovation project STARCELL (www.starcell.eu), and the RISE project INFINITE-CELL (www.infinite-cell.eu), for the development of Kesterites. In 2019 he was granted with an ERC-Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (SENSATE, 866018, 2020-2025), for the development of low dimensional materials for solar harvesting applications to be developed at UPC. Currently he is also the scientific coordinator of the European project CUSTOM-ART (952982), for the industrialization of kesterite for BIPV/PIPV applications.
He has supervised 13 PhD Thesis and is currently supervising 5 more. He has an h factor of 41 and more than 6000 citations. In 2020 he has been awarded with the ASEVA-Toyota Award for his contribution to the development of sustainable photovoltaic technologies using vacuum techniques.
Hosted by Mariona Coll, SUMAN group, ICMAB-CSIC
Register here to attend by Zoom.
