Nanodiamond coatings for solar cells
OwnerRobert N. Castellanoinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A nanodiamond coating for use on a solar cell, the coating including a nanodiamond material suspended in a liquid, wherein the nanodiamond material has a size range from about 1 nm to about 10 nm. Methods for improving the efficiency of a solar cell, including mixing a nanodiamond material with a liquid polymer or non-polymer solvent to form a nanodiamond-polymer suspension, forming a coating of the suspension on a top surface of a solar cell, and drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond-polymer layer remains bonded to the solar cell.
Claims28
A method of improving the efficiency of a solar cell, comprising:
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a liquid polymer to form a nanodiamond-polymer suspension, wherein the liquid polymer is polyvinylidene fluoride;
- applying the suspension on a top surface of a solar cell to form a coating thereon;
- and
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond-polymer layer remains bonded to the top surface of the solar cell.
A method of improving the efficiency of a solar cell, comprising:
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a liquid polymer to form a nanodiamond-polymer suspension;
- applying the suspension on a top surface of a solar cell to form a coating thereon;
- and
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond-polymer layer remains bonded to the top surface of the solar cell;
- wherein the nanodiamond-polymer layer has a thickness less than or equal to about 25 microns.
A method for improving the efficiency of a solar cell, comprising:
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a non-polymer solvent to form a suspension;
- applying the suspension on a top surface of a photovoltaic material within the solar cell to form a coating thereon;
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond layer remains bonded to the photovoltaic material;
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a polymer solvent to form a nanodiamond-polymer suspension;
- forming a coating of the nanodiamond-polymer suspension on the top surface;
- and
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond-polymer layer remains bonded to the solar cell.
A method of improving the efficiency of a solar cell, comprising:
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a liquid polyvinylidene fluoride polymer to form a nanodiamond-polymer suspension;
- applying the suspension on a top surface of a solar cell to form a coating thereon;
- and
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond-polymer layer remains bonded to the top surface of the solar cell.
A method for improving the efficiency of a solar cell, comprising:
- mixing a material consisting essentially of nanodiamond with a non-polymer dimethyl sulfoxide solvent to form a suspension including less than or equal to about 0.1% w/w of the nanodiamond material;
- applying the suspension on a top surface of a photovoltaic material within the solar cell to form a coating thereon;
- and
- drying the coating such that a dried nanodiamond layer remains bonded to the photovoltaic material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.