Enhancement of hybrid tandem photovoltaic thermoelectric devices by fishnet through metamaterials and nanoporous TE materials

Embedment of a fishnet meta-structure for the hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric (PV-TE) system and, synthesis/characterization of printable nanoporous thermoelectric (TE) ink are proposed. A planar fishnet structure is embedded in the back passivation layer of the solar cell to enhance solar thermal absorption, and it was observed to improve the efficiency by around 11 folds in the PV-TE hybrid system with fishnet. Nanoporous Bi
₂
Te
₃
and Sb
₂
Te
₃
was used to prepare thermoelectric inks to print p-n junctions. Development of fishnet, synthesis/ characterization of TE ink, binder and conductive ink are elucidated in this paper.