Graphene is considered the next generation material for solar panel construction where it is expected to be a primary component in solar cells. By coating it with a silicon film, it retains its transparency and conductivity, thereby making it the best material for making solar cells thus far. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics recently conducted a research which proved this fact. The findings have opened doors for the use of graphene in the thin-film photovoltaics industry.

Graphene solar cells

Graphene is an ideal material for solar cells because it’s transparent, cheap, a good conductor, and non-toxic. The transparency quality makes it a perfect material for solar cell construction because it does not reduce the amount of incoming light.

The Michigan Technological University researchers have made various developments in graphene solar cells. In the first case, they developed a structure so that the graphene sheets are held apart by lithium carbonate; this method has attained 7.8% efficiency. In the second case the researchers have worked out models of solar cells from single graphene and molybdenum diselenide cells; these are expected to produce 1,000 times more energy than that of equally weighing materials. In the third case, the MIT scientists have developed solar cells by combining graphene and zinc oxide, and the cost of producing these cells will be cheaper as compared to other options.

Another major development has been made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass. They have built solar cells using graphene and AuCl3, this is an organic photovoltaic with a high absorption effect, low weight and low cost. Since these organic photovoltaics are transparent, it implies they can be used on windows, thereby enabling you to tap your solar energy conveniently.

Other developments of graphene in making solar cells have been done by the University of Florida in the US. They have achieved the most efficient graphene based solar cell (at 8.6%) by making of dope technology.

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Given the impending bottleneck of supply in indium tin oxide, a material currently used as a transparent conducting film, researchers are now focusing their attention on graphene as a cheaper alternative since it has ideal properties for this purpose.

Photo-voltaic manufacturers have taken little interest in using graphene as a replacement of indium tin oxide as a transparent conducting film, even when graphene has the highest potential of filling this looming gap. This lack of interest has been partly due to little research into what happens to graphene’s attractive conductivity when used together with silicon.

This, however, will change now that researchers have found out that graphene does not lose its remarkable properties when used together with silicon.

Graphene and Silicon Solar Cell

Researchers had revealed that when graphene is incorporated into a pile of layers, same a thin film solar cell based on silicon, the material does not significantly change its conductive properties as initially feared.

The researchers used a process of chemical vapor deposition to grow the graphene on a copper sheet, transferred it to a substrate made from glass, and then covered it with a thin film made from silicon. The researchers experimented with different morphologies of silicon and found out that graphene maintained its conductive properties in all cases. Graphene still retains its properties, even when coated with silicon with different characteristics.

The conductive properties of graphene, when measured, exceeded most materials. For instance, its carrier mobility is 30 times higher than that of the conventional contact layers based on zinc oxide. Despite the fact that it is difficult to use contact layers made from graphene with external contacts, the prospects have attracted interest all over the world. Already, thin film technology enthusiasts have invested in incorporating this development in their work.

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