Investigation of solar cell degradation using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
Dinesh Kumar Sharma
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Kapil Pareek
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Correspondence
Kapil Pareek, Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur 302017, India.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAmartya Chowdhury
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Search for more papers by this authorDinesh Kumar Sharma
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Kapil Pareek
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Correspondence
Kapil Pareek, Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur 302017, India.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAmartya Chowdhury
Centre for Energy and Environment, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
The performance of solar cells reduces annually due to various unavoidable phenomena of thermal cycling, damp heat, UV exposure, and mechanical stress, etc. Generally, I-V characteristic is used to check the performance of the solar cell, but the minor stress conditions mentioned above are difficult to characterize by I-V measurement. Impedance spectroscopy is a widely used method in fuel cell and a battery that can be used to detect minor degradation in the solar cell by analyzing the change in equivalent circuit parameters. In this work, commercially available polycrystalline silicon solar cell is investigated under the condition of hotspot, mechanical stress, and disconnection of interconnection ribbon and then characterized by impedance measurement, Fourier transform (Bode plot) as well as I-V characteristic. The results show noteworthy decrease in parallel resistance (Rp) which is clearly visible in Nyquist plot in compare to the I-V characteristic. The Rp decreases in EIS from 283.60 to 234.80 Ω for mechanical stress test, from 273.0 to 187.10 Ω for hotspot and from 352.80 to 345.20 Ω for disconnection of interconnection ribbon test. The results confirm potential application of impedance measurement for solar cell characterization due to noteworthy change in equivalent circuit parameters after test conditions.
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
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er5567-sup-0001-Supinfo.docxWord 2007 document , 411 KB | Figure S1. Mechanical stress test I-V characteristics (a) Semi log scale and (b) log scale. Figure S2. (a) Rp and (b) Rs data for mechanical stress test obtained from EIS and dark I-V measurement. Figure S3. Hot spot test I-V characteristics (a) Semi log scale and (b) log scale. Figure S4. (a) Rp and (b) Rs data for hotspot test obtained from EIS and dark I-V measurement. Figure S5. Ribbon disconnection test I-V characteristics (a) Semi log scale (b) log scale. Figure S6. (a) Rp and (b) Rs data for disconnection of interconnect ribbon test obtained from EIS and dark I-V measurement. Table S1. Randel's equivalent circuit parameter and I-V parameters for mechanical stress test. Table S2. Randel's equivalent circuit parameter and I-V parameters for hotspot test. Table S3. Simplified Randel's equivalent circuit parameter and I-V parameters for disconnection of interconnect ribbon test. |
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