SBIR Phase I: Advanced Manufacturing of Photonic Smart Coatings for Utility-Scale PV Applications

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是通过降低太阳能的生命周期成本来增加对太阳能的采用。拟议的工作是使用一种新的方法来提高任何具有附加制造工艺的太阳能组件的效率。这项技术可以调节太阳光，以改善其吸收，并最大限度地将其转化为电能。拟议的SBIR第一阶段项目将推进高精度添加剂制造工艺的开发，以创建太阳能电池统一的光学层。在平板玻璃或聚碳酸酯衬底上形成一层纳米光学涂层。建议的涂层限制了入射光子的波长分布，以匹配单晶硅和多晶硅太阳能电池的带隙。涂层通过嵌入纳米颗粒层在晶体硅太阳能电池表面产生局部表面等离子体共振来增强一致性。光子通过一维分布式布拉格反射器散射回太阳能电池。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to increase the adoption of solar power by reducing the life-cycle cost of solar energy. The proposed work is to use a novel approach to improving the efficiency of any solar module with an additive manufacturing process. The technology tunes sunlight to improve its absorption and maximize its conversion into electric power. The proposed SBIR Phase I project will advance the development of a high-precision additive manufacturing process to create uniform optical layers for solar cells. A layer of nano-optical coating is created on either a plate-glass or polycarbonate substrate. The proposed coating restricts the wavelength distribution of incident photons to match the bandgap of mono- and polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The coating enhances coherence by embedding a nano-particle layer creating localized surface plasmon resonance on the crystalline silicon solar cell surface. Photons are scattered back to the solar cell with a one-dimensional distributed Bragg reflector.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.