• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.99.1-99.1
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• 2012

The thin-film photovoltaic absorbers (CdTe and $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$) can achieve solar conversion efficiencies of up to 20% and are now commercially available, but the presence of toxic (Cd,Se) and expensive elemental components (In, Te) is a real issue as the demand for photovoltaics rapidly increases. To overcome these limitations, there has been substantial interest in developing viable alternative materials, such as $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) is an emerging solar absorber that is structurally similar to CIGS, but contains only earth abundant, non-toxic elements and has a near optimal direct band gap energy of 1.4 - 1.6 eV and a large absorption coefficient of ~104 $cm^{-1}$. The CZTS absorber layers are grown and investigated by various fabrication methods, such as thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation with a post sulfurization, sputtering, non-vacuum sol-gel, pulsed laser, spray-pyrolysis method and electrodeposition technique. In the present work, we report an alternative aqueous chemical approach based on chemical bath deposition (CBD) method for large area deposition of CZTS thin films. Samples produced by our method were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorbance and photoluminescence. The results show that this inexpensive and relatively benign process produces thin films of CZTS exhibiting uniform composition, kesterite crystal structure, and some factors like triethanolamine, ammonia, temperature which strongly affect on the morphology of CZTS film.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.88-94
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• 2014

The structural, optical and electrical properties of sputter-deposited CIGS films were directly influenced by the sputtering process parameters such as substrate temperature, working pressure, RF power and distance between target and substrate. CIGS thin films deposited by using a quaternary target revealed to be Se deficient due to Se low vapor pressure. This Se deficiency affected the overall stoichiometry of the films, causing the films to be Cu-rich. Current tends to pass through the Cu-Se channels which act as the shunting path increasing the film conductivity. The crystal structure of CIGS thin films depends on the substrate orientation due to the influence of surface morphology, grain size and stress of Mo substrate. The excess of Cu was removed from the CIGS films by KCN treatment, achieving a suitable Cu concentration (referred as Cu-poor) for the fabrication of solar cell. Due to high Cu concentrations on the CIGS film surface induced by Cu-Se phases after CIGS film deposition, KCN treatment proved to be necessary for the fabrication of high efficiency solar cells. Also during KCN treatment, dislocation density and lattice parameter decreased as excess Cu was removed, resulting in increase of bandgap and the decrease of conductivity of CIGS films. It was revealed that Cu-Se secondary phase could be removed by KCN wet etching of CIGS films, allowing the fabrication of high efficiency absorber layer.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.37-41
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• 2017

Cuprous oxide ($Cu_2O$) is one of the potential candidates as an absorber layer in ultra-low-cost solar cells. $Cu_2O$ is highly desirable semiconducting oxide material for use in solar energy conversion due to its direct band gap ($E_g={\sim}2.1eV$) and high absorption coefficient that absorbs visible light of wavelength up to 650 nm. In addition, $Cu_2O$ has other several advantages such as non-toxicity, low cost and also can be prepared with simple and cheap methods on large scale. In this work, we deposited the $Cu_2O$ thin films by electrodeposition on gold coated $SiO_2/Si$ wafers. We changed the process conditions such as pH of the solution, applied potential on working electrode, and solution temperature. Finally, we confirmed the structural properties of the thin films by XRD and SEM.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.98.2-98.2
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• 2012

Thin film solar cells are growing up in the market due to their high efficiency and low cost. Especially CdTe and $CuInGaSe_2$ based solar cells are leading the other cells, but due to the limited percentage of the elements present in our earth's crust like Tellurium, Indium and Gallium, the price of the solar cells will increase rapidly. Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS) and Copper Zinc Tin Selenide (CZTSe) semiconductor (having a kesterite crystal structure) are getting attention for its solar cell application as the absorber layer. CZTS and CZTSe have almost the same crystal structure with more environmentally friendly elements. Various authors have reported growth and characterization of CZTSe films and solar cells with efficiencies about 3.2% to 8.9%. In this study, a novel method to prepare CZTSe has been proposed based on selenization of stacked Copper Selenide ($Cu_2Se$), Tin Selenide ($SnSe_2$) and Zinc Selenide (Zinc Selenide) in six possible stacking combinations. Depositions were carried out through RF magnetron sputtering. Selenization of all the samples was performed in Close Space Sublimation (CSS) in vacuum at different temperatures for three minutes. Characterization of each sample has been performed in Field Emission SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, EDS and Auger. In this study, the properties and results of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ thin films grown by selenization will be presented.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.567-570
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• 2006

A numerical study has been carried out for a solar water heater which consists of double skin solar vacuum tubes. Water is heated as it flows through the coaxial fluid conduit inserted in each tube. The space between the exterior of the fluid conduit and the glass tube is tilled with antifreeze solution. This is to facilitate heat transfer from the solar heated absorber surface to water and to prevent the functional problems due to freezing in frigid weather conditions. A one-dimensional steady state model is fully described which will be used to develop three-dimensional model using STAR-CD. These models could be used efficiently in designing double skin solar collector tubes with different geometrical parameters other than those considered in the present analysis. Results show a good agreement when compared with other experimental data demonstrating the reliability of the one-dimensional model employed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.145-148
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• 2006

The protocrystalline silicon (pc-Si:H) multilayer solar cell is very promising owing to its fast stabilization with low degradation against light irradiation. However, the pc-Si:H multi layers have not extensively been investigated in detail on its material characteristics yet. We present the material characteristics of pc-Si:H multilayer using a transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, we present the superior light-soaking behavior of the pc-Si:H mutt i layer solar cell. A TEM micrograph shows that a pc-Si:H multilayer has a repeatedly layered structure and crystalline-like objects in a-Si:H matrix. A Raman spectra introduces improved short-range-order and medium-range-order in pc-Si:H multilayer. As a result the excellent metastability of the pc-Si:H multilayer solar cell is primarily due to the repeatedly layered structure that improves a structural order in absorber layer.

• Solar Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2000

In this research, the intensity of solar energy, which was injected to the different angle plane every hour day by day, was technically documented and quantitatively analyzed through actual observations. In order to group every days into days with similar intensity, graph was drawn with respect to time for every day and each area value under the curve was calculated. Then, the search for grouped days having similar intensity curve patterns was carried out. In order to maximize the efficiency of solar energy systems, the optimum incident angle of absorber plate was derived.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2013

The aim of this study is to analyze the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) for water heating and to validate the model performance. The simulated model was compared, calibrated and verified with the experimental results. RMSE (Root mean square error) was used to calibrate the convective heat transfer coefficient between the absorber pipe and the ambient air which was the main factor affecting the heat transfer associated with the PTC. The calibrated model was better fitted with the experimental model. The maximum, minimum and mean deviation between the measured and predicted water temperatures differed only $0.81^{\circ}C$, $0.09^{\circ}C$ and $0.31^{\circ}C$ respectively in the calibrated model. RMSE values were decreased from 0.5389 to 0.4910, 0.0134 to 0.0125 and R-squared was increased from 0.9955 to 0.9956 after calibration. The temperature of water was increased from $33.7^{\circ}C$ to $48^{\circ}C$ in 12hour test. The thermal efficiency of the collector was calculated to be 55%. The calibrated model showed good agreement with the experimental data for model validation.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.50-57
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• 2018

This paper proposes the use of supports as passive vibration absorber to a composite solar panel for a high-agility satellite. We further defined the dynamic model of the composite solar panel with the help of the Ritz method and verified vibration suppression performance of the support by performing vibration analysis. Finally, this research ensures optimal design of the composite solar panel with the support for maximizing vibration suppression performance in limited mass. The proposed results of the optimal design can be applied in actual structural design of satellites.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.6
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• pp.521-533
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• 2023

In the present study, the finite volume method is applied for the thermal performance prediction of the natural ventilation system using vertical solar chimney whereas, design parameters are optimized through the response surface methodology (RSM). The computational simulations are performed for various parameters of the solar chimney such as absorber temperature (40≤T_abs≤70℃), inlet temperature (20≤T₀≤30℃), inlet height of (0.1≤h≤0.2 m) and chimney width (0.1≤d≤0.2 m). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to identify the design parameters that influence the average Nusselt number (Nu) and mass flow rate (ṁ). Then, quadratic polynomial regression models were developed to predict of all the response parameters. Consequently, numerical and graphical optimizations were performed to achieve multi-objective optimization for the desired criteria. According to the desirability function approach, it can be seen that the optimum objective functions are Nu=25.67 and ṁ=24.68 kg/h·m, corresponding to design parameters h=0.18 m, d=0.2 m, T_abs=46.81℃ and T₀=20℃. The optimal ventilation flow rate is enhanced by about 96.65% compared to the minimum ventilation rate, while solar energy consumption is reduced by 49.54% compared to the maximum ventilation rate.