Functionalization of a polymer encapsulant with photon conversion

Current silicon solar cell modules use a polymer encapsulant to protect the solar cells. This polymer is essential but it has a passive action. In this work, we propose to functionalize the polymer by inserting inorganic nanoparticles in it so that it converts ultraviolet photons into infrared photons. The final goal is to increase the overall efficiency of the silicon solar modules. The polymer proposed is ethylene vinyl acetate which is a commonly used encapsulant, to which Nd, or Yb, or Tb-Yb doped CeO2 nanoparticles are added for the photon conversion. Although no improvement in efficiency was observed in solar cells including the nanoparticles in the encapsulant, the present work paves the way for the integration of photon downconversion into modules without the use of vacuum deposition technologies.