A photoactive layer is used in

solar cells A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

for absorbing light. It can be found in all solar cells, but with different panels the photoactive layer is made of different materials.

Inorganic An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds⁠that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemistry''. Inor ...

layers are made from inorganic materials such as

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

. The film has a layer arrangement of

electrodes An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or a gas). In electrochemical cells, electrodes are essential parts that can consist of a variety ...

and counter electrode with organic layers in between the two. The layer is found underneath the glass, adhesive, and reflection coating, but is the first required part of the cell.

Definition

Photoactive means it can have a

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...

with sunlight and/or

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

light. Most of the solar cell is photoactive, but the base of the solar cell only conducts electricity after it has been converted. It can also mean that it responds to photons photoelectrically. This can also relate to a physical reaction, but this does not occur within photoactive layers.

Efficiency

Layers that are thicker are sometimes preferred because they can absorb more light. While sometimes thinner ones are preferred for greater efficiency. The light must pass through the

band gap In solid-state physics and solid-state chemistry, a band gap, also called a bandgap or energy gap, is an energy range in a solid where no electronic states exist. In graphs of the electronic band structure of solids, the band gap refers to t ...

. For this to work the light must have a minimum energy depending on the cell to pass through. Different cells have a different minimum while the light below the minimum passes through the absorber.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Photoactive Layer Solar cells

Definition

Efficiency

See also

References