A method includes providing an electrically conductive mandrel having an outer surface layer comprising a preformed pattern. The metallic article is electroformed. The metallic article includes a plurality of electroformed elements formed in the preformed pattern on the outer surface layer of the mandrel. The plurality of electroformed elements have a first side adjacent to the outer surface layer of the mandrel and a second side. The metallic article is separated from the mandrel. The plurality of electroformed elements are interconnected such that the metallic article forms a unitary, free-standing piece. A solution is applied to create a blackening of the first side of the plurality of electroformed elements.

An energy conversion device for conversion of various energy forms into electricity. The energy forms may be chemical, photovoltaic or thermal gradients. The energy conversion device has a first and second electrode. A substrate is present that has a porous semiconductor or dielectric layer placed thereover. The substrate itself can be planar, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional, and possess internal and external surfaces. These substrates may be rigid, flexible and/or foldable. The porous semiconductor or dielectric layer can be a nano-engineered structure. A porous conductor material is placed on at least a portion of the porous semiconductor or dielectric layer such that at least some of the porous conductor material enters the nano-engineered structure of the porous semiconductor or dielectric layer, thereby forming an intertwining region.

A solar cell superfine electrode transfer thin film is described. The electrode transfer thin film sequentially includes from bottom to top a substrate, a release layer, a resin layer and a hot melt adhesive layer; the resin layer is formed with electrode trenches therein; the electrode trenches are formed with electrodes therein; superfine conductive electrodes are continuously prepared on a transparent thin film via a roll-to-roll nanoimprinting method, the width of an electrode wire being 2 μm-50 μm, and the width of a typical line being 10 μm-30 μm. Directly attach the superfine electrodes of the hot melt adhesive layer to a solar cell by peeling off the substrate material, and sintering at a high temperature to volatilize the hot melt adhesive layer material while retaining the electrodes, thus the electrodes are integrally transferred, without poor local transfer.

Semiconductor devices comprising: a semiconductor device comprising: a first electrode comprising conductive material, wherein the conductive material is deposited by ink deposition (for example, layered material inks such as graphene and/or graphite), or wherein the conductive material comprises CVD grown graphene or carbon nanotubes; a first charge transportation layer, wherein the first charge transportation layer is doped with the conductive material of the first electrode; an optional insulation layer; a perovskite active layer; a second charge transportation layer; and a second electrode.

Disclosed are a substrate for a solar cell and a method for manufacturing the same. The method include putting negative and positive electrodes facing away from each other into suspension in which at least two different types of negatively charged cellulose nanofibers are dispersed; applying a voltage across the positive and negative electrodes such that the cellulose fibers are adsorbed onto a surface of the negative electrode; and drying the negative electrode having the cellulose fibers adsorbed thereon.

Photovoltaic devices with very high breakdown voltages are described herein. Typical commercial silicon photovoltaic devices have breakdown voltages below 50-100 volts (V). Even though such devices have bypass diodes to prevent photovoltaic cells from going into breakdown, the bypass diodes have high failure rates, leading to unreliable devices. A high-efficiency silicon photovoltaic cell is provided with very high breakdown voltages. By combining a device architecture with very low surface recombination and silicon wafers with high bulk resistivity (above 10 ohms centimeter (Ω-cm)), embodiments described herein achieve breakdown voltages close to 1000 V. These photovoltaic cells with high breakdown voltages improve the reliability of photovoltaic devices, while reducing their design complexity and cost.

A photovoltaic device is described, the device comprising a transparent conducting electrode layer; a back contact layer comprising at least one MXene material; and an active layer, comprising a photovoltaic active material, disposed between the transparent conducting electrode layer and the back contact layer. Also described is a method of producing a photovoltaic device, the method comprising the steps of providing substrate, depositing a transparent conducting electrode over the substrate; depositing an active layer comprising a photovoltaic material over the transparent conducting electrode; and depositing an MXene layer material over the active layer. A method of generating electricity using the disclosed device is also described.

Embodiments of a photovoltaic device are provided herein. The photovoltaic device can include a layer stack and an absorber layer disposed on the layer stack. The absorber layer can include a first region and a second region. Each of the first region of the absorber layer and the second region of the absorber layer can include a compound comprising cadmium, selenium, and tellurium. An atomic concentration of selenium can vary across the absorber layer. The first region of the absorber layer can have a thickness between 100 nanometers to 3000 nanometers. The second region of the absorber layer can have a thickness between 100 nanometers to 3000 nanometers. A ratio of an average atomic concentration of selenium in the first region of the absorber layer to an average atomic concentration of selenium in the second region of the absorber layer can be greater than 10.

A photovoltaic device including: a first amorphous semiconductor layer (3) and a second amorphous semiconductor layer (4) both on a back face of a semiconductor substrate (1); electrodes (5, 6); and a wiring board (8). The electrodes (5, 6) are disposed on the first amorphous semiconductor layer (3) and the second amorphous semiconductor layer (4) respectively. The wiring board (8) has wires (82) connected to the electrodes (5) by a conductive adhesive layer (7). The wiring board (8) has wires (83) connected to the electrodes (5) by the conductive adhesive layer (7). The electrodes (5) include conductive layers (51, 52). The electrodes (6) include conductive layers (61, 62). The conductive layers (51, 61) are composed primarily of silver. The conductive layers (52, 62) cover the conductive layers (51, 52) respectively. Each conductive layer (52, 62) is composed of a metal more likely to be oxidized than silver.

Provided is a conductive material that is capable of achieving a high-electric conductivity, long-term stability under an atmospheric environment, heat and high humidity stabilities, as well as a conductive film and a solar cell using the same. The conductive material includes a mixture of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSS acid). The element ratio (S/C ratio) of sulfur (S) to carbon (C) in the mixture may be from 0.001 to 0.1 in terms of the number of atoms. CNTs and PSS acid may make up a content percentage of 10 wt % or more in the mixture. These conductive films comprised of the conductive material 6 may have a weight per unit area of the CNTs in the range from 1 mg/m.sup.2 to 10000 mg/m.sup.2. The solar cell may include the conductive film 7, wherein the film is on the surface of a semiconductor.