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Alkali elements for solar cells
They are the "salt in the soup": Alkali elements such as sodium, potassium and rubidium. Even the smallest amounts of sodium, around 0.3 per mille, significantly improve the efficiency of CIGS thin-film solar cells. The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research ZSW achieved the current efficiency records of up to 22.6 per cent with the heavy alkali element rubidium. What does this element do? New measurement methods have shown that rubidium in the absorber is distributed along the so-called grain boundaries (crystallites), thereby improving the electronic properties of the solar...