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A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect. [1] It is a form of photoelectric cell, a device whose electrical characteristics (such as current, voltage, or resistance) vary when it is exposed to light.
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors.
In thick solar cells there is very little electric field in the active region outside the space charge zone, so the dominant mode of charge carrier separation is diffusion. In these cells the diffusion length of minority carriers (the length that photo-generated carriers can travel before they recombine) must be large compared to the cell ...
The first produces electrical energy similarly to a dye-sensitized photovoltaic cell, which meets the standard definition of a photovoltaic cell. The second is a photoelectrolytic cell , that is, a device which uses light incident on a photosensitizer , semiconductor , or aqueous metal immersed in an electrolytic solution to directly cause a ...
Both n-type and p-type semiconductor/liquid junctions can be used as photovoltaic devices to convert solar energy into electrical energy and are called photoelectrochemical cells. In addition, a semiconductor/liquid junction could also be used to directly convert solar energy into chemical energy by virtue of photoelectrolysis at the ...
The chemical reactions in the cell involve the electrolyte, electrodes, and/or an external substance (fuel cells may use hydrogen gas as a reactant). In a full electrochemical cell, species from one half-cell lose electrons ( oxidation ) to their electrode while species from the other half-cell gain electrons ( reduction ) from their electrode.
There are four main categories of photovoltaic cells: conventional mono- and poly-crystalline silicon (c-Si) cells, thin film solar cells (a-Si, CIGS and CdTe), and multi-junction (MJ) solar cells. The fourth category, emerging photovoltaics , contains technologies that are still in the research or development phase and are not listed in the ...
An Al/MgPc/Ag cell obtained photovoltaic efficiency of 0.01% under illumination at 690 nm. [20] Conjugated polymers were also used in this type of photovoltaic cell. One device used polyacetylene (Fig. 1) as the organic layer, with Al and graphite, producing an open-circuit voltage of 0.3 V and a charge collection efficiency of 0.3%. [21]