The tamers of solar energy

An international patent MD 4339 B1 «Photovoltaic single-junction» was obtained by BelSU at Moldova Republic. For many years the team of BelSU scientists under the auspices of Professor of General and Applied Physics Subdepartment Vasiliy Zakhvalinskiy, Doctor of Physical and Mathematics Sciences has been conducting solar power research together with colleagues from Moldova Institute of Applied Physics.

The research team succeeded: it obtained the patents of Russian Federation –«Photovoltaic structure» and “Solar cell based on heterostructure of mixed amorphous and nanocrystallic silicon nitride p-type silicon”. «Photovoltaic single-junction» is the first foreign patent they’ve got.

“The Sun is an unlimited source of eco-harmless energy. Alternative energy sources help to relieve the pressure industrial civilization puts on the planet’s ecosystem. But the major flaw of solar cells is in their high cost; it is higher than the cost of energy from conventional fuels. Our goal is to find cheap and eco-friendly materials and technologies for the creation of solar cells”, – said V. Zalikhvatskiy.

According to his words, the scientists have applied a method of high-frequented nonreactive magnetron sputtering of nanosized films of semiconductors and oxides for getting of photovoltaic heterostructures. They achieved a success: magnetron sputtering is a cheap and eco-friendly method of thin film coating of wide specter of materials, including infusible ones.

“Now, more than ninety percent of solar cells in the world are based on silicon. But production of pure silicon is ecologically dangerous. In the beginning of two-southandth, for example, there was a large industrial disaster connected with production of silicon for electronics industry. We use only eco-friendly materials, for example, carbides and nitrides of silicon for thin-film solar cells. The don’t harm the environment and are cheap nonetheless”, – he said.

The work of the research group was supported by grants from RFBR and administration of Belgorod Region. Their articles are published in magazines of Scopus and Web. OfScience databases.

Now, Professor V. Zakhvalinskiy, assistant professor of general and applied physics E. Pilyuk and Professor’s postgraduates – Nguen Thi Tham Hong (Vietnam), Rodrigues Velaskes Guni (Mexica), S. Taran, A. Khmara, L. Borisenko (Russian) continue research of solar power. The masters Sergei Ivanchihin and Mikhail Pogrebnyak have also conduct research at laboratory of electronics and materials at BelSU Institute of Engineering and Natural Science general and Applied Physics Department.