Abstract
AbstractIn the past, the application of carbon nanotube‐silicon solar cell technology to industry has been limited by the use of a metallic frame to define an active area in the middle of a silicon wafer. Here, industry standard device geometries are fabricated with a front and back‐junction design which allow for the entire wafer to be used as the active area. These are enabled by the use of an intermixed Nafion layer which simultaneously acts as a passivation, antireflective, and physical blocking layer as well as a nanotube dopant. This leads to the formation of a hybrid nanotube/Nafion passivated charge selective contact, and solar cells with active areas of 1–16 cm2 are fabricated. Record maximum power conversion efficiencies of 15.2% and 18.9% are reported for front and back‐junction devices for 1 and 3 cm2 active areas, respectively. By placing the nanotube film on the rear of the device in a back‐junction architecture, many of the design‐related challenges for carbon nanotube silicon solar cells are addressed and their future applications to industrialized processes are discussed.
Highlights
Introduction active areasNotably, in 2014 Wang et al.[10] reported a power conversion efficiency of 17% but over an area of 0.008 cm2, Carbon nanotube-silicon solar cells are a niche field of photo- and in 2019 Wu et al.[11] achieved 16.2% for 0.81 cm2
We show that a conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) network incorporated by an insulating Nafion polymer matrix does not affect the sheet resistance of the CNT film, and can form an effective physical blocking layer to prevent the direct contact of metal to the silicon at the CNT:Si interface
We demonstrate that the CNT:Si solar cell concept can be applied in an industrially compatible way and prepare front and backjunction solar cells with scalable active areas ranging from 1 to 16 cm2 and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.9–15.2%
Summary
The measured Voc of 624–638 mV closely match the measured iVoc of 653 mV, indicating effective surface passivation afforded by the CNT/Nafion PCSC This is comparable to previous literature devices with Voc of
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
