The Role of Nanomaterials in Solar Cells

Nanotechnology applications in solar cells provide benefits such as power conversion efficiency and reduced manufacturing and installation costs. Reduced manufacturing costs are a result of using low temperature processes, such as electrochemical synthesis, instead of the high temperature processes typically used to produce conventional crystalline semiconductor materials, such as vacuum deposition. Even more, a new technology of making the solar cell, the substrate that supports it, and a protective overcoating to shield it from the environment, all in one process is under the development. Nanostructured surfaces also can reduce reflection losses when the size of the nanostructures is smaller than the wavelength of the incident light.