Solar materials interface science

Extensive interface research is crucially essential for developing long-life, cost-effective, multilayer, polycrystalline, thin-film stacks for SECS. Microchemical analysis and other interface measuring techniques must be employed to solve the interfacial stability problems in the stacks. Important topical areas in solar materials interface science include thin films grain, phase, and interfacial boundaries corrosion and oxidation adhesion chemisorption, catalysis, and surface processes abrasion and erosion photon-assisted surface reactions and photoelectrochemistry and interface characterization methods. 

An overview of the most important phenomena in interface science related to studying solar materials is presented in this section. The methods for characterizing interfaces and those deemed likely to have the largest near-term impact on solving the problems of interface degradation are then mentioned. 

The three phases of interest are the solid (S), liquid (L), and gas (G) phases, none of which is infinite. The boundary region between the S, L, and G phases has fundamentally different properties from the bulk. The S/S, S/G, and S/L surfaces, in that order, are of greatest interest to the solar materials scientist (4). Some of the broad topical areas of study at the interfaces of SECS are listed in Table 2. An understanding of these topics is enhanced by applying the methodologies of interface science. 

Interface Science Applied to Solar Energy Materials... 

Interfaces between two different media provide a place for conversion of energy and materials. Heterogeneous catalysts and photocatalysts act in vapor or liquid environments. Selective conversion and transport of materials occurs at membranes of biological tissues in water. Electron transport across solid/solid interfaces determines the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells or organic electroluminescence devices. There is hence an increasing need to apply molecular science to buried interfaces. 

Krishnan Rajeshwar is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Associate Dean in the College of Science at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of over 450 refereed publications, several invited reviews, book chapters, a monograph, and has edited books, special issues of journals, and conference proceedings in the areas of materials chemistry, solar energy conversion, and environmental electrochemistry. Dr. Rajeshwar is the Editor of the Electrochemical Society Interface magazine and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Applied Electrochemistry. Dr. Rajeshwar has won many Society and University awards and is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society. 

A. Bruno, F. Villani, I. Grimaldi, F. Loffredo, P. Morvillo, R. Diana, S. Haque, and C. Minarini, Thin Solid Films, Vol. 560, p. 14, 2014. European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Spring Meeting 2013 Symposium B Organic and hybrid interfaces in excitonic solar cells from fundamental science to applications. 

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