The Effects of Varied Thickness on the Practical and Theoretical Efficiency of Zinc Oxide Solar Cells

Overview

The purpose of this experiment was to see how the thickness of ZnO2 solar cells affected the efficiency of the cells. I chose this topic because I find solar cells fascinating, and I hope to be able to contribute to the field of photovoltaics. It was predicted that up to a certain point, the efficiency of the cells would increase, and after that point the efficiency would decline and plateau. The way I reached this hypothesis was through the PC1D solar cell simulation. The simulation showed that under perfect conditions, at approximately 8.2 um thick, the efficiency would increase by approximately .06 and the base Isc and base Voc would decrease by .007 and .006 respectively. T o compare to this, solar cells were produced in a lab. The cells were placed in a sputtering system for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes to produce varied thicknesses of zinc-oxide layers. The data showed a difference in the base max power, base Isc and base Voc of thicker cells. A possible explanation for this is a decreased amount of surface recombination than in thinner cells. This would increase the efficiency by decreasing the number of electrons that travel to the bottom of the cell, without contacts, and the energy is lost. T o extend this study it would be interesting to vary the sputtering process for longer, and take more trials to allow for statistical analysis to be possible.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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