Customizable, Multifunctional, and Highly Environmentally Stable Pseudomorphic Glass for Space Flexible Photovoltaic.

Abstract

Flexibility, light transmission, and radiation protection are crucial for space photovoltaic (PV) device encapsulation. Several promising transparent encapsulation materials have been proposed in the past decade. However, it is still a huge challenge to achieve high-efficiency power generation and high stability of solar cells simultaneously, which is mainly caused by the extreme space environment. In this paper, a customizable multifunctional pseudomorphic glass (PMG) composite material was designed based on geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and then encapsulated on large-area flexible multijunction solar cells through laminating methods. Benefiting from the high transmittance and large angle scattering characteristics of PMG, PV devices can maintain high power conversion efficiency after encapsulation (∼30.69%), while having a 12.71% higher power generation than colorless polyimide when sunlight is omnidirectionally incident. In addition, various space assessment experiments (ultraviolet irradiation, charged particle irradiation, and thermal cycling) were conducted on PMG and encapsulated PV devices, showing excellent durability and reliability. This demonstrates the potential application of PMG in space flexible solar arrays, which can significantly increase the specific power (550 W/kg) and reduce 40% of the launch weight compared with traditional rigid panels. More importantly, this research demonstrates the PMG design method based on GEO missions and assembles it into large-area flexible solar arrays for advanced space facilities. This innovation achieves high-efficiency power generation and long-life reliable service of encapsulated solar cells, and the method can also be extended to other flexible PV devices and orbital missions.