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Spectral Selectivity of CdTe Cells with Substrate Configuration for Photovoltaic/Thermal Applications

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Abstract

Existing photovoltaic cells with high infrared emissivity generate huge radiative heat loss in photovoltaic/thermal applications and degrade the photothermal performance. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the full spectral absorptivity of CdTe cells to find a spectrally selective photovoltaic cell for photovoltaic/thermal applications. To this end, the solar absorptivity and mid-infrared thermal emissivity of CdTe cells were tested by ellipsometry, UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The experimental results show that the AM 1.5 solar spectrum weighted absorptivity of the substrate configuration CdTe cell reaches 0.91, and the mid-infrared emissivity is only 0.29, while the superstrate configuration cell emissivity is as high as 0.9. Further research shows that substrate configuration with a transparent conductive layer on top can be flexibly grown on metal foils and has spectral selectivity with high solar absorptivity and low mid-infrared emissivity should be considered in the future for photovoltaic/thermal applications.

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Abbreviations

c :

Light speed/m·s−1

Eg:

Energy bandgap/eV

h :

Plank’s constant/J·s

k :

Extinction coefficient

n :

Refractive index

q :

Electron charge/C

R :

Spectral normal reflectance

T :

Spectral normal transmittance

t :

Temperature/K

AM1.5g :

Air mass 1.5 global solar spectrum

BB:

Black body

ESA:

Enhanced solar absorption

I sub :

Improved substrate configuration

MF:

Metal foil substrate

PV/T:

Photovoltaic/thermal

Sub:

Substrate configuration

Super:

Superstrate configuration

α :

Absorptivity

ε :

Emissivity

η th :

Solar-thermal efficiency

λ :

Wavelength/nm

σ :

Stefan-Boltzmann constant/J·K−1

ω :

Angular frequency

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 52130601 and 52106276) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WK5290000003). This work was partially conducted at the University of Science and Technology of China Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication. We appreciate the support of the Research Center for Multi-energy complementation and conversion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China

    Ken Chen, Kongfu Hu, Bin Zhao & Gang Pei

  2. Key Laboratory of Solar Thermal Conversion of Anhui Province, Hefei, 230027, China

    Ken Chen, Kongfu Hu, Bin Zhao & Gang Pei

  3. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Tao Chen

  4. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100190, China

    Yong Hao

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Yong Hao

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  1. Ken Chen
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Correspondence to Bin Zhao or Gang Pei.

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Chen, K., Hu, K., Zhao, B. et al. Spectral Selectivity of CdTe Cells with Substrate Configuration for Photovoltaic/Thermal Applications. J. Therm. Sci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1979-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1979-z

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