Chapter 10 - Application of graphitic carbon nitride in solar cells

Abstract

Emerging solar cells has brought a new era to the photovoltaic world owing to their low fabrication costs, facile processing pathways and a broad spectrum of practical applications. For improving the overall performance of the emerging solar cells, various semiconducting 2-dimensional (2D) materials have been developed. One of the potential materials that has delivered positive outcome in many studies pertinent to emerging solar cells is graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). g-C3N4 exhibits excellent optical properties, high thermal physical-chemical stability, and environmental friendly nature. Although the development of g-C3N4 for emerging solar cells are still in the nascent stages, g-C3N4 can be employed in the devices in versatile manner including as additive, counter electrode, and charge transporting layer. In this chapter, the progress of the research and development of g-C3N4 for various emerging solar cell applications such as dye-sensitized, quantum-dots sensitized, organic, and perovskite solar cells will be presented.