Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol.155, 362-367, 2016
Compact and high-power dye-sensitized solar system integrated with low-cost solar-concentrating polymer lens
A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is integrated monolithically with a polymer lens to demonstrate a compact, low-cost and high-power solar energy harvesting system. The proposed polymer lens is composed of a piano-convex lens for concentrating light and a supporting layer for controlling the distance between the lens and DSSC according to its thickness. A single-step polymer replication process with a glass-based lens mold makes it possible to fabricate the polymer lens in a simple and reproducible manner. The power conversion performance of the polymer lens-integrated dye-sensitized (PLD) solar system is optimized by simply controlling the height of the supporting layer. The maximum output power of DSSC is improved by similar to 50.2% after monolithically integrating with the polymer lens with a 3 mm-thick supporting layer. Finally, the PLD solar system is packaged with a self-cleanable polymer film to protect the lens from the environment and to make the system robust to contamination. Through a simple self-cleaning test, it is found that the PLD system can recover similar to 95.2% of its original output power. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.