• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Light induced degradation is one of the major research challenges of hydrogenated amorphous silicon related thin film silicon solar cells. Amorphous silicon shows creation of metastable defect states, originating from elevated concentration of dangling bonds during light exposure. The metastable defect states work as recombination centers, and mostly affects quality of intrinsic layer in solar cells. In this paper we present results of light induced degradation in thin film silicon solar cells and discussion on physical origin, mechanism and practical solutions of light induced degradation in thin film silicon solar cells. In-situ light-soaking IV measurement techniques are presented. We also present thin film silicon material with silicon nano-quantum dots embedded within amorphous matrix, which shows superior stability during light-soaking. Our results suggest that solar cell using silicon nano-quantum dots in abosrber layer shows superior stability under light soaking, compared to the conventional amorphous silicon solar cell.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.16-21
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• 2010

It is well-known that Boron-doped Cz Si solar cells suffer light-induced degradation due to boron-oxygen defect which is responsible of a reduction in lifetime and hence efficiency. In this paper, we assume that PV solar cell has been connected with variable load to account the real operating condition and it shows different light-induced degradation of Si solar cell. To evaluate the effect of light-induced degradation for solar cell with various load, Single crystalline solar cells are connected with open and short circuits during light exposure. Isc-Voc curve evaluate light induced degradation of solar cells and the reason is explained as a change for serial resistance. From the results, Electrical characteristics of solar cells show better performance under short circuit conditions, after light exposure.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1995.07c
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• pp.1019-1021
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• 1995

Light induced degradation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) are related to the number of weak dangling bonds which are thought to be responsible for the Staebler-Wronski effects, and caused the many photoelectric problems in applications of thin film transistors and solar cell, etc. In this paper, we deposited fluorinated amorphous silicon films(a-Si:H;F) with $SiH_4$ and $SiF_4$ gas mixture and investigated the effects of fluorine atoms on the evoluations of the crystallinity and improvements of light instability. We have found that micro-crystallinity produced in a-SI:H;F films and marked maximum value of 22% at the flow rate of $SiH_4:SiF_4$=2:10 sccm by UV spectrophotometer measurement, while n-Si:H film deposited with only $SiH_4$ gas showed no crystallinity. Light-induced degradation property of a-Si:H;F films is also improved which is mainly due to the etching effects of fluorine atoms on the weak Si-Si bonds and unstable hydrogen bonds. It is considered that involving fluorine atoms in a-Si:H films may contribute to the suppression of light-induced degradation and evolution of micro-crystallinity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.985-988
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• 2004

The carrier lifetime of boron doped Cz silicon samples after light induced degradation could be improved by optimized rapid thermal processing (RTP). The important five different parameters varied in order to investigate which parameter is important for the stable lifetime after light induced degradation, $\tau_d$. The Plateau temperature and the Plateau time influenced on the lifetime after light induced degradation. Especially, the Plateau temperature showed a strong influence on the stable lifetime. The optimal plateau temperature is approximately $900^{\circ}C$ t for a plateau time of 120 s. The stable lifetime increased from $15\mu}s$ to $25.5{\mu}s$. The normalized defect concentration, $N_t^*$, decreased from $0.06{\mu}s^{-1}$ to $0.037{\mu}s^{-1}$ by RTP-process.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2012

The main issue of boron doped p-type czochralski-grown silicon solar cells is the degradation when they are exposed to light or minority carriers injection. This is due to the meta-stable defect such as boron-oxygen in the Cz-Si material. Although a clear explanation is still researching, recent investigations have revealed that the Cz-Si defect is related with the boron and the oxygen concentration. They also revealed how these defects act a recombination centers in solar cells using density function theory (DFT) calculation. This paper reviews the physical understanding and gives an overview of the degradation models. Therefore, various methods for avoiding the light-induced degradation in Cz-Si solar cells are compared in this paper.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.305-309
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• 2014

When sunlight irradiates a boron-doped p-type solar cell, the formation of BsO2i decreases the power-conversion efficiency in a phenomenon named light-induced degradation (LID). In this study, we used boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells to monitor this degradation process in relation to irradiation wavelength, intensity and duration of the light source, and investigated the reliability of the LID effects, as well. When halogen light irradiated a substrate, the LID rate increased more rapidly than for irradiation with xenon light. For different intensities of halogen light (e.g., 1 SUN and 0.1 SUN), a lower-limit value of LID showed a similar trend in each case; however, the rate reached at the intensity of 0.1 SUN was three times slower than that at 1 SUN. Open-circuit voltage increased with increasing duration of irradiation because the defect-formation rate of LID was slow. Therefore, we suppose that sufficient time is needed to increase LID defects. After a recovery process to restore the initial value, the lower-limit open-circuit voltage exhibited during the re-degradation process showed a trend similar to that in the first degradation process. We suggest that the proportion of the LID in boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells has high correlation with the normalized defect concentrations (NDC) of BsO2i. This can be calculated using the extracted minority-carrier diffusion-length with internal quantum efficiency (IQE) analysis.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1600-1604
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• 2018

This paper reports on a systematic and quantitative assessment of light induced degradation (LID) and regeneration in full Al-BSF and passivated emitter rear contact cells (PERC) along with the fundamental understanding of the difference between the two. After LID, PERC cells showed a much greater loss in cell efficiency than full Al-BSF cells (~0.9% vs ~0.6%) because the degradation in bulk lifetime also erodes the benefit of superior BSRV in PERC cells. Three main regeneration conditions involving the combination of heat and light ($75^{\circ}C/1\;Sun/48h$, $130^{\circ}C/2\;Suns/1.5h$ and $200^{\circ}C/3\;Suns/30s$) were implemented to eliminate LID loss due to BO defects. Low temperature/long time ($75^{\circ}C/48h$) and high temperature/short time ($200^{\circ}C/30s$) regeneration process was unable to reach 100% stabilization. The intermediate temperature/time ($130^{\circ}C/1.5h$) generation achieved nearly full recovery and stabilization (over 99%) for both full Al-BSF and PERC cells. We discussed the effect of temperature, time and suns in regeneration mechanism for two cells.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1195-1201
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• 2008

Enhancing with non-metallic elemental nitrogen(N) is one of several methods that have been proposed to modify the electronic properties of bulk titanium dioxide($TiO_2$), in order to make $TiO_2$ effective under visible-light irradiation. Accordingly, current study evaluated the feasibility of applying visible-light-induced $TiO_2$ enhanced with N element to cleanse aromatic compounds, focusing on xylene isomers at indoor air quality(IAQ) levels. The N-enhanced $TiO_2$ was prepared by applying two popular processes, and they were coated by applying two well-known methods. For three o-, m-, and p-xylene, the two coating methods exhibited different photocatalytic oxidation(PCO) efficiencies. Similarly, the two N-doping processes showed different PCO efficiencies. For all three stream flow rates(SFRs), the degradation efficiencies were similar between o-xylene and m,p-xylene. The degradation efficiencies of all target compounds increased as the SFR decreased. The degradation efficiencies determined via a PCO system with N-enhanced visible-light induced $TiO_2$ was somewhat lower than that with ultraviolet(UV)-light induced unmodified $TiO_2$, which was reported by previous studies. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that PCO efficiencies increased up to 94% for o-xylene and 97% for the m,p-xylene under lower SFR(0.5 L $min^{-1}$). Consequently, it is suggested that with appropriate SFR conditions, the visible-light-assisted photocatalytic systems could also become important tools for improving IAQ.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1589-1595
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• 2010

In order to effective degradation of organic dye both under visible light or ultrasonic irradiation, the MWCNTs (multiwalled carbon nanotube) deposited with Fe and $TiO_2$ were prepared by a modified sol-gel method. The Fe/$TiO_2$-MWCNT catalyst was characterized by surface area of BET, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The low intensity visible light and low power ultrasound was as an irradiation source and the methylene blue (MB) was choose as the model organic dye. Then degradation experiments were carried out in present of undoped $TiO_2$, Fe/$TiO_2$ and Fe/$TiO_2$-MWCNT catalysts. Through the degradation of MB solution, the results showed the feasible and potential use of Fe/$TiO_2$-MWCNT catalyst under visible light and ultrasonic irradiation due to the enhanced formation of reactive radicals as well as the possible visible light and the increase of ultrasound-induced active surface area of the catalyst. After addition of $H_2O_2$, the MB degradation rates have been accelerated, especially with Fe/$TiO_2$-MWCNT catalyst, in case of that the photo-Fenton reaction occurred. The sonophotocatalysis was always faster than the respective individual processes due to the more formation of reactive radicals as well as the increase of the active surface area of Fe/$TiO_2$-MWCNT catalyst.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1371-1374
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• 2001

Metal doping was adopted to modify TiO2 (P-25) and enhance the photocatalytic degradation of harmful cyanides in aqueous solution. Ni, Cu, Co, and Ag doped TiO2 were found to be active photocatalysts for UV light induced degradation of aqueous cyanides generating cyanate, nitrate and ammonia as main nitrogen-containing products. The photoactivity of Ni doped TiO2 was greatly affected by the state of Ni, that is, the crystal size and the degree of reduction of Ni. The modification effects of some mixed oxides, that is, Ni-Cu/TiO2 were also studied. The activity of Ni-Cu/TiO2 for any ratio of Cu/Ni was higher than that of Ni- or Cu-doped TiO2, and the catalyst at the Cu/Ni ratio of 0.3 showed the highest activity for cyanide conversion.