Faculty Publications

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    Efficiency improvement on the multicrystalline silicon wafer through six sigma methodology
    (2012) Saravanan, S.; Mahadevan, M.; Suratkar, P.; Gijo, E.V.
    Crystalline silicon solar cell technology continues to be dominant in the photovoltaic (PV) technology due to its novel process flow and the clear understanding of the material. Being a mature material-based technology; on the one hand, it has quite a few opportunities for improvement, on the other hand, the expansion of solar energy should depend on this technology. Due to increase in the global energy consumption and high competition level in the market, it has become necessary to show significant improvement in the performance of the present process/product. The demand for high efficiency solar cells at low costs with shorter cycle times forced the manufacturing industries to improve their processes by applying systematic methodologies such as Six Sigma. This paper illustrates the importance of anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) on the silicon solar cell processes and the successful implementation of Six Sigma to improve the efficiency of the silicon solar cells. The different phases of the Six Sigma DMAIC approach applied to the process and the results are interpreted. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
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    New D-?-A type indole based chromogens for DSSC: Design, synthesis and performance studies
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2015) Babu, D.D.; Gachumale, S.R.; Anandan, S.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.
    Three new Donor-?-Acceptor type dyes D1-3 carrying 3-(1-hexyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-2-(thiophen-2-yl)acrylonitrile as backbone with three different acceptor units were designed and synthesized as promising sensitizers for solar cell application. The new dyes were characterized using various spectral and elemental analyses. Their optical and electrochemical properties were investigated using spectrophotometry and cyclic voltammetry respectively, while their photovoltaic performance was evaluated by a device fabrication study. The devices were subjected to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to gain an insight into the interfacial charge transfer and recombination process while in use. Further, density functional theory study was carried out to investigate their Frontier Molecular Orbital energy states. The study reveals that the dye carrying 4-aminobenzoic acid as an acceptor showed the highest photovoltaic efficiency among the three dyes. This can be attributed to the longer electron lifetime and lower recombination rates. Additionally, a Single crystal X-ray diffraction study confirmed the structure of a key intermediate. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Molecular Engineering and Theoretical Investigation of Novel Metal-Free Organic Chromophores for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2015) Babu, D.D.; Cheema, H.; Elsherbiny, D.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.
    In this work we report design and synthesis of three new metal free D-D-A-?-A type dyes (E1-3) with different acceptor/anchoring groups, as effective sensitizers for nanocrystalline titanium dioxide based dye sensitized solar cells. All the three dyes carry electron donating methoxy group as an auxiliary and indole as a principal donor, cyanovinylene as an auxiliary acceptor and thiophene as a ?-spacer. Whereas, cyanoacetic acid, rhodanine-3-acetic acid and 4-aminobenzoic acid perform as acceptor/anchoring moieties, respectively in the dyes E1-3. Though the dye containing 4-aminobenzoic acid unit (E3) exhibits comparatively lower ?max, it shows the highest power conversion efficiency arising from the higher electron life time and good light-harvesting capability. The DFT studies reveal a better charge separation between the HOMO and LUMO levels of E3, further substantiating the experimental results. Among the three dyes, E3 shows the best photovoltaic performance with short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 9.35 mA cm-2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 620 mV and fill factor (FF) of 0.71, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 4.12% under standard global AM 1.5G. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Low temperature synthesis of iron pyrite nanorods for photovoltaic applications
    (Springer New York LLC barbara.b.bertram@gsk.com, 2015) Namanu, P.; Jayalakshmi, M.; Bhat, K.U.
    Iron pyrite is gaining reputation amongst the various alternatives for silicon as the photovoltaic material in solar cells due to its low cost, strong absorption and relatively high abundance of its constitutional elements. The synthesis of iron pyrite nanoparticles by existing hydrothermal methods with precise control over size, shape and stoichiometry is a difficult task due to the difficulty in controlling the parameters at a higher temperature. Here, we report a novel synthesis method for obtaining iron pyrite nanorods through a low temperature process in a stirred container which is scalable for the large scale industrial production. The nanorods synthesized by the new method consisted of single phase pyrite, possessing an optical band gap of about 1.13 eV. The overall mechanism of nanorod formation is explained by the La Mer model as well as the oriented attachment model. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
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    New indole based co-sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cells exceeding 10% efficiency
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Babu, D.D.; Su, R.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.
    In this work, we report the molecular engineering and synthesis of three novel indole co-sensitizers DBA-3, DBA-4 and DBA-5 with D–D–A (donor–donor–acceptor) architecture. In the quest to comprehend the role of auxiliary donors on co-sensitization, we have incorporated auxiliary electron donating moieties with varying geometries and electron donating capabilities to the indole moiety in order to obtain the aforementioned co-sensitizers. Their electrochemical and photo-physical properties along with molecular geometries, obtained from Density Functional Theory (DFT) are studied to vindicate the effect of the co-sensitizer structures on the photovoltaic properties of DSSCs. Furthermore, for the first time we demonstrate the profound effect of auxiliary donor groups on the co-sensitization performance of the organic molecules. Devices co-sensitized using DBA-3, DBA-4 and DBA-5 along with ruthenium sensitizer NCSU-10, displayed significantly different photovoltaic conversion efficiencies (PCEs) when compared to that of the device sensitized using only NCSU-10. The photovoltaic and EIS studies revealed that, the co-sensitizer DBA-4 succeeded in enhancing the light harvesting capability as well as efficiently suppressing undesirable charge recombinations in the cell. Due to the aforementioned reasons, a cell co-sensitized using DBA-4 has shown promising photovoltaic results and exhibited an enhanced overall efficiency of 10.12%. Furthermore, vertical electronic excitations, calculated using TD-DFT, are in good agreement with the experimental l max results, which clearly indicates that, the energy functional and basis set utilized in this study can be effectively employed for predicting the absorption spectra of novel photosensitizers, with high confidence prior to their synthesis. All these results provide a better understanding and deeper insight into the intricacies involved in the design of superior co-sensitizers to further improve the performance of DSSCs. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016
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    From Molecular Design to Co-sensitization; High performance indole based photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2016) Babu, D.D.; Su, R.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.
    Herein, we report the molecular design and synthesis of two novel organic co-adsorbers DBA-1((Z)-2-cyano-3-(5-(4-(cyclohexa-1,5-dien-3-ynyl(phenyl)amino)phenyl)-1-hexyl-1H-indol-3-yl)acrylic acid) and (DBA-2) 5-((5-(4-(diphenylamino)phenyl)-1-hexyl-1H-indol-3-yl)methylene)pyrimidine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione with D-D-A (donor-donor-acceptor) architecture. We have combined the strong electron donating triphenylamine group with indole moiety attached to different acceptors/anchoring groups, as co-adsorbers for dye-sensitized solar cells and we present for the first time, the role of anchoring/acceptor unit on their co-adsorption properties. In this study, cyanoacetic acid and barbituric acid are employed as anchoring groups in the co-sensitizers DBA-1 and DBA-2, respectively. Their electrochemical and photo-physical properties along with molecular geometries, obtained from Density Functional Theory (DFT) are employed to vindicate the effect of co-sensitizer structures on photovoltaic properties of DSSCs. We have demonstrated that the co-sensitization effect is profoundly dependent upon the anchoring/acceptor unit in the co-adsorber molecule. Devices co-sensitized using DBA-1 and DBA-2 along with HD-2 (Ru-complex of 4, 4?-bis-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl-vinyl)-[2,2?]bipyridine), displayed higher power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) than the device sensitized using only HD-2. In the present work, ruthenium based sensitizer, HD-2, has been chosen due to its better solar-to-power conversion efficiency and impressively higher photocurrent densities than that of standard N719. Among them, co-adsorber DBA-2, containing barbituric acid as the acceptor/anchoring group displays promising photovoltaic results and exhibited an enhanced efficiency of 8.06%. Further, good agreement between the calculated and experimental results showcase the precision of the energy functional and basis set utilized in this study. All these findings provide a deeper insight and better understanding into the intricacies involved in the design of superior co-sensitizers for development of highly efficient DSSCs. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Highly efficient panchromatic dye-sensitized solar cells: Synergistic interaction of ruthenium sensitizer with novel co-sensitizers carrying different acceptor units
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2016) Babu, D.D.; Elsherbiny, D.; Cheema, H.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.
    Herein, we report the molecular design, synthesis and photovoltaic performance studies of three new organic co-sensitizers, N1-3 carrying indole and thiophene units linked to different acceptors/anchoring groups, as co-adsorbents for dye sensitized solar cells. We present the role of anchoring/acceptor units on co-sensitization properties N1-3. Their photo-physical and electrochemical results along with molecular geometry, obtained from Density Functional Theory are utilized to rationalize the influence of co-sensitizer structures on photovoltaic properties for DSSCs. We have shown that, the co-sensitization effect is profoundly dependent upon the anchoring/acceptor unit in the co-adsorbents. Among them, N3 containing 4-aminobenzoic acid shows promising co-sensitization results and exhibits an enhanced efficiency of 9.26%, when co-sensitized with a ruthenium dye, HD-14. Further, the study highlights the importance of molecular matching between the sensitizer and co-sensitizer in enhancing the efficiency. Furthermore, vertical electronic excitations are calculated using time dependent density functional theory studies. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Synthesis and band gap tuning in CdSe(1-x)Te(x) thin films for solar cell applications
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Santhosh, T.C.M.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Thin films of CdSe(1-x)Te(x) (x = 0 – 1) were grown on to the glass substrates by thermal evaporation method (PVD). The effect of annealing duration on the formation of single phase ternary alloys were systematically investigated. The prepared thin films were characterized by using FE-SEM, EDS and X-ray diffractometer. The X-ray diffraction studies shows that vacuum annealed films are polycrystalline in nature, and well oriented along a preferred direction of (0 0 2) for hexagonal and along (1 1 1) for cubic crystal structure. It is observed that increase in the CdTe concentration leads to change in the crystal structure from hexagonal to cubic. The absorption coefficients and optical band gaps were evaluated from spectrometric measurements. It is observed that optical band gap can be tuned from 1.67 eV to 1.51 eV as value of x varied from 0 to 1. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
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    Thermal and optical characterization of biologically synthesized ZnS nanoparticles synthesized from an endophytic fungus Aspergillus flavus: A colorimetric probe in metal detection
    (Elsevier B.V., 2017) Uddandarao, U.; Mohan Balakrishnan, R.M.
    Nanostructured semiconductor materials are of great importance for several technological applications due to their optical and thermal properties. The design and fabrication of metal sulfide nanoparticles with tunable properties for advanced applications have drawn a great deal of attention in the field of nanotechnology. ZnS is a potential II–IV group material which is used in hetero-junction solar cells, light emitting diodes, optoelectronic devices, electro luminescent devices and photovoltaic cells. Due to their multiple applications, there is a need to elucidate their thermal and optical properties. In the present study, thermal and optical properties of biologically synthesized ZnS nanoparticles are determined in detail with Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Derivative Thermogravimetric Analysis (DTG), Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), Photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy. The results reveal that ZnS NPs exhibit a very strong quantum confinement with a significant increase in their optical band gap energy. These biologically synthesized ZnS NPs contain protein residues that can selectively bind with metal ions in aqueous solutions and can exhibit an aggregation-induced color change. This phenomenon is utilized to quantitatively measure the metal concentrations of Cu2 + and Mn2 + in this study. Further the stability of nanoparticles for the metal sensing process is accessed by UV–Vis spectrometer, zeta potential and cyclic voltammeter. The selectivity and sensitivity of ZnS NPs indicate its potential use as a sensor for metal detection in the ecosystem. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
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    Effect of annealing on the properties of spray-pyrolysed lead sulphide thin films for solar cell application
    (Springer Verlag service@springer.de, 2017) Veena, E.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Annealing is the most important processing parameter perhaps as it directly affects the properties of the thin films. In the present article, lead sulphide thin films composed of (2 0 0) plane-oriented nano-rods were successfully synthesized on glass substrates using spray pyrolysis technique at annealing temperature 350 °C. Films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX), UV–VIS–NIR spectrometry and two-probe experiments. The X-ray diffraction study confirmed that films exhibiting face-centred cubic structure with a preferred orientation along (2 0 0) plane were independent of annealing temperature. SEM photographs revealed the formation of nano-rods. The possible formation of nano-rods and its dependency on optical and electrical properties were discussed. Chemical composition in terms of atomic ratio of the constituents is determined from EDAX studies. The optical band gap of the lead sulphide thin films was found to decrease from 1.22 to 0.98 eV with an increase in annealing temperature. The electrical conductivity of the films at room temperature was of the order of 10?2 ??1 cm?1 with the low activation energy. Results prove that lead sulphide films grown by chemical method appeal its adoptability for potential solar cell applications. © 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.