Elsevier Solar Cells and Light Management: Materials, Strategies and Sustainability

Solar Cells and Light Management: Materials, Strategies and Sustainability provides an extensive review on the latest advances in PV materials, along with light management strategies for better exploiting the solar spectrum. Following a brief review of the current status of solar cells, the book discusses different concepts, principles and technologies for solar devices, starting with standard silicon cells and then covering organic-hybrid, DSSC, perovskite, quantum dots and nanostructured oxide solar cells. Other sections focus on light manipulation and spectral modification, materials for spectral conversion, and environmental and sustainably considerations. An emergy analysis, which is an extension of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, is applied to the study of solar PV systems, thus allowing for effective integrated indicators. Review Provides an extensive review on the latest advances in photovoltaic materials, along with light management strategies for better exploiting the solar spectrum From the Back Cover <p>Edited by Francesco Enrichi & Giancarlo C. Righini </p> <p>Strong research efforts and considerable investments are now devoted to the widespread development of renewable energies. A key role is played by photovoltaics (PV) since sunlight is available all over the world and can be exploited in low-priced portable devices, as well as large-scale industrial installations. Indeed, the evolution of solar cells is moving incredibly fast, especially in the synthesis of novel materials and by increasing the efficiency of existing ones too. </p><i> <p>Solar Cells and Light Management: Materials, Strategies, and Sustainability </p></i><p>provides an extensive review on the latest advances in PV materials as well as light management strategies for better exploiting the solar spectrum. Following a brief review of the current status of solar cells, this book is divided into four key parts. The first part discusses the different concepts, principles, and technologies for solar devices, starting from the standard silicon cells to organic hybrid, DSSC, perovskite, and nanostructured oxide solar cells. This panorama allows the reader to get up to date with the standard traditional approach as well as new and more promising concepts. The second and third parts are focused on light manipulation and spectral modification to further improve and increase the photon-to-current efficiency. These fields, too, are in rapid evolution, and the latest results on optical strategies and materials for light trapping, plasmonic scattering, spectral up- and downconversion (mainly based on rare earth–doped oxides and complexes) are reported. Finally, the book is brought to a closure with two chapters on environmental, sustainable, and ethical issues. An eMergy (spelled with "m") analysis approach is presented applied to the study of solar PV systems. This analysis, which is an extension of Life Cycle Assessment methodology, allows effective integrated indicators for the evaluation of the global efficiency and the sustainability of the systems at issue. The final chapter also presents considerations which can contribute to establish an environmentally just and sustainability standard for photovoltaics.</p> <p>About the authors</p> <p>Francesco Enrichi, PhD in materials science, is a physicist with about 20 years’ experience in research and technology transfer. He has been a Vinnmer Marie Curie Fellow at Luleå University of Technology, Research Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and at Enrico Fermi Center in Rome, and Director of the Optical Laboratory in Veneto Nanotech, the Italian Cluster for Nanotechnologies. His research interests are mainly in the field of luminescent materials from nanophosphors to glass-ceramic coatings, with applications in biosensors, lighting, solar cells, anticounterfeiting, and cultural heritage. In these areas, he published more than 100 research papers an