National institute of

technology,kurukshetra
 Introduction
 Nanotechnology is the nexus of sciences.
 It includes anything smaller than 100 nanometers with
novel properties.
 The advent of solar energy just about solved all the
problems.
 The conventional solar cells that are used to harness solar
energy are less efficient and cannot function properly on a
cloudy day.
 The use of nanotechnology in the solar cells created an
opportunity to overcome this problem , thereby increasing
the efficiency.
Why Nanotechnology in solar cell
 The conventional solar cells are less efficient.

 Their efficiency is very poor in cloudy days.

 To overcome above problems, A new type of solar

cell embedded with NANOTECHNOLOGY is
developed, which is INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR
CELL.
 INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

 Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn

the suns power into electric energy even on a cloudy
day.

 The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains

the 1stgeneration solar cells that can harness the sun’s
invisible infrared rays.

 This breakthrough made us to believe that plastic solar

cells could one day become more efficient than the
current solar cell.
Division of sunlight
 INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR
CELL
 We made the infrared
plastic solar cell by using
conducting plastic means
polymer which feature
conjugate double bond that
enables electrons to move
through them. Fig: Infrared plastic solar cell

 It reduces the need to Source:www.seminarsonly.com

PLUG IN for power.

 It uses specially designed Nano particles
called quantum dots.

QUANTUM DOT
Source:www.slideplayer.com
•The quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic
that can detect energy in the infrared.

QUANTUM DOT LAYER

Source:www.slideplayer.com
 WORKING OF PLASTIC SOLAR CELL
 A layer only 200 nanometers
thick is sandwiched between
electrodes.

 It can produce 0.7V at

present

 The sunlight passes through

the transparent electrode is
absorbed by the
semiconducting donor and
acceptor material in the Source:www.krishisanskriti.org
photoactive layer.
 It requires
semiconductor Nano
rods (7 nm by 60nm).

 The heart of a solar

cell is a 200-nm-thick
Nano rods embedded
in a semiconducting
polymer
Fig: Basic structure of plastic solar cell

Source:www.krishisanskriti.org

 It consists of cadmium selenite (CdSe) Nano rods and

blended with P3HT(poly-3hexylthiophene).
 Aluminum coating acts
as the back electrode .

 When Nanorods absorb

light they generate an
electron and an
electron hole.

 Electron is collected by
aluminum electrode.

 The hole is transferred

to the plastic and
conveyed to the
Source:www.krishisanskriti.org
electrode, creating a
current.
 IMPROVEMENTS
 Better light collection and concentration
employed in the solar cells.

 In plastic cells Nano rods are closely packed

and transfer their electrons more directly to
the electrolyte.

 They also hope to tune the Nano rods to

absorb different colors to span the spectrum
of sun light.
 APPLICATIONS
 Telecommunication systems:

 Radio transceivers on mountain tops, or

telephone boxes in the country can often be
solar powered.
 Hydrogen powered car:

Hydrogen car painted with the film could convert

solar energy into electricity to continually recharge
the car’s battery
 Chip coating:

 Chip coated in the

material could power cell
phone

 A couple of drops if the

titanium dioxide
suspension is then added.

 The slide is then set aside

to dry for one minute.
 Ocean navigation aids:

Source:www.seminarsonly.com

Ocean navigation aids: many lighthouses and most

buoys are now powered by solar cells.
Infrared Plastic Solar Cells

Source:www.seminarsonly.com
 ADVANTAGES
Plastic solar cells are quite a lot useful in the coming future. This is
because of the large number of advantages it has got. Some of the
major advantages are:

 They are considered to be 30% more efficient when compared to

conventional solar cells.

 They are more efficient and more practical in application.

 Traditional solar cells are bulky panels. This is very compact.

 Conventional solar cells are only used for large applications with
big budgets. But the plastic solar cells are feasible as they can be
even sewn into fabric- thus having vast applications.

 Flexible, roller processed solar cells have the potential to turn the
sun’s power into a clean, green, consistent source of energy.
 LIMITATIONS

 They are very costly.

 Relatively shorter life span when continuously

exposed to sunlight.

 It requires higher maintenance and constant

monitoring.
 CONCLUSION
 Plastic solar cells help in exploiting the
infrared radiation.
 More effective when compared to
conventional solar cells.
 They can even work on cloudy days.
 Though at present cost is a major
drawback, it can be solved in the near
future.
 FUTURE SCOPE
Improve the efficiency of plastic solar
cell.
Improve the time span of plastic solar
cell for widely use.
Decrease the cost of manufacture of
plastic solar cell.
Research is on to fabricate thin film
InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cell which
have alternatively low cost, light weight
flexible using the same layer transfer
scheme.
 REFERENCES
1.Introduction to Nanotechnology:Charles P Poole,Frank J Owens
2.Nanomaterials:synthesis,properties and applications: Edelstein, A.S.cammarata
3.Solar energy-fundamentals, design, modeling, applications : G.N.Tiwari
4. Shraddha R. Jogdhankar, Channappa Bhyri , ” A Review Paper on Infrared
Plastic Solar Cell”.
5. Nabhani, Nader, and Milad Emami. "Nanotechnology and its Applications in
Solar Cells." transport 10: 11.
6. Tanabe, Katsuaki, Katsuyuki Watanabe, and Yasuhiko Arakawa. "Flexible
thin-film InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells." Applied Physics Letters 100.19
(2012): 192102.
7. Kalyani, R., and K. Gurunathan. A Review on Plastic (Flexible) Solar Cells. J
Nanotec Nanosci 1: 100114. Issue 1–KJNN-100114 www. kenkyugroup. org
Page 1, 2016.