Elucidating early proton irradiation effects in metal halide perovskites via photoluminescence spectroscopy.

Metal halide perovskite (MHP) solar cells are promising aerospace power sources given their potential as inexpensive, lightweight, and resilient solar electricity generators. Herein, the intrinsic radiation tolerance of unencapsulated methylammonium lead iodide/chloride (CHNHPbICl) films was isolated. Spatially resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and confocal microscopy revealed the fundamental defect physics through optical changes as films were irradiated with 4.

Organofunctional Silane Modification of Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Surfaces as a Route to Stabilization.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a low-temperature processed transparent conductive oxide (TCO) made of earth abundant elements; its applications are currently limited by instability to heat, moisture, and acidic conditions. We demonstrate that the application of an organofunctional silane modifier mitigates AZO degradation and explore the interplay between performance and material composition and morphology. Specifically, we evaluate degradation of bare AZO and APTES (3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane)-modified AZO in response to damp heat (DH, 85 °C, 85% relative humidity) exposure over 1000 h and then demonstrate how surface modification impacts changes in electrical and optical properties and chemical composition in one of the most thorough studies to date.

Democratizing an electroluminescence imaging apparatus and analytics project for widespread data acquisition in photovoltaic materials.

We present a description of an electroluminescence (EL) apparatus, easily sourced from commercially available components, with a quantitative image processing platform that demonstrates feasibility for the widespread utility of EL imaging as a characterization tool. We validated our system using a Gage R&R analysis to find a variance contribution by the measurement system of 80.56%, which is typically unacceptable, but through quantitative image processing and development of correction factors a variance contribution by the measurement system of 2.

Microinverter Thermal Performance in the Real-World: Measurements and Modeling.

Real-world performance, durability and reliability of microinverters are critical concerns for microinverter-equipped photovoltaic systems. We conducted a data-driven study of the thermal performance of 24 new microinverters (Enphase M215) connected to 8 different brands of PV modules on dual-axis trackers at the Solar Durability and Lifetime Extension (SDLE) SunFarm at Case Western Reserve University, based on minute by minute power and thermal data from the microinverters and PV modules along with insolation and environmental data from July through October 2013. The analysis shows the strengths of the associations of microinverter temperature with ambient temperature, PV module temperature, irradiance and AC power of the PV systems.