Non-Curing Thermal Interface Materials with Graphene Fillers for Thermal Management of Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Barath Kanna Mahadevan,Alexander A Balandin,Sahar Naghibi,Fariborz Kargar

doi:10.3390/c6010002

Barath Kanna Mahadevan, Alexander A Balandin + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/c6010002

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Abstract

Temperature rise in multi-junction solar cells reduces their efficiency and shortens their lifetime. We report the results of the feasibility study of passive thermal management of concentrated multi-junction solar cells with the non-curing graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials. Using an inexpensive, scalable technique, graphene and few-layer graphene fillers were incorporated in the non-curing mineral oil matrix, with the filler concentration of up to 40 wt% and applied as the thermal interface material between the solar cell and the heat sink. The performance parameters of the solar cells were tested using an industry-standard solar simulator with concentrated light illumination at 70× and 200× suns. It was found that the non-curing graphene-enhanced thermal interface material substantially reduces the temperature rise in the solar cell and improves its open-circuit voltage. The decrease in the maximum temperature rise enhances the solar cell performance compared to that with the commercial non-cured thermal interface material. The obtained results are important for the development of the thermal management technologies for the next generation of photovoltaic solar cells.

Highlights

Due to increasing energy demands and depletion of non-renewable energy resources, there is an increase in research activities on efficiently harnessing energy from renewable sources like solar and wind
It was found that the non-curing graphene-enhanced thermal interface material substantially reduces the temperature rise in the solar cell and improves its open-circuit voltage
We demonstrate that the detrimental effects of temperature on the performance of multi-junction solar cells can be substantially reduced by using non-curing Thermal interface materials (TIMs) with incorporated graphene and few-layer graphene (FLG) fillers [53,54,55]

Summary

Introduction

Due to increasing energy demands and depletion of non-renewable energy resources, there is an increase in research activities on efficiently harnessing energy from renewable sources like solar and wind. We report the results of the feasibility study of thermal management of multi-junction solar cells under 70× and 200× suns illumination with non-curing graphene-enhanced TIMs. Non-curing. We demonstrate that the detrimental effects of temperature on the performance of multi-junction solar cells can be substantially reduced by using non-curing TIMs with incorporated graphene and few-layer graphene (FLG) fillers [53,54,55]. While the intrinsic thermal conductivity of FLG is lower than that of single-layer graphene, FLG fillers have the advantages of a larger cross-section for heat transfer They preserve better their thermal properties upon exposure to the matrix material, and experience less bending and rolling during the mixing process with the base polymer matrix. Optimization of the size and thickness of graphene—FLG fillers can lead to further improvements in thermal management applications [66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73]

Material Preparation and Characterization

Solar Cell Testing Procedures

Results and Discussion

Conclusions