Comment on “Chen et al., Fabrication and photovoltaic conversion enhancement…”, Electrochimica Acta, 2014

Abstract

In a recent article, Chen et al. [Electrochimica Acta, 2014, 130: 279] presented their fabrication and characterization results on a graphene/n-Si solar cell where the Au nanoparticles were inserted in graphene to increase its optical and electrical properties. The higher efficiency of the device was attributed to increased conductivity of graphene after doping with Au nanoparticles. However, the knowledge in the field of Schottky diode solar cells relates this to increased band bending at the junction. Also, to explain the instability behaviour, they concluded that the growth of silicon oxide on the Si surface or oxygen adsorption on the window layer resulted in the device performance increasing initially and decreasing in the end. However, this instability seems to be due to variation in series resistance reduced at the beginning because of slightly lowered Fermi level and increased at the end by the self-compensation by deep in-diffusion of Au nanoparticles into n-Si layer. We also propose that inserting a very thin p-type layer at the junction will enhance the carrier collection and performance of this device.