The effect of dry shear aligning of nanotube thin films on the photovoltaic performance of carbon nanotube-silicon solar cells.

Benedikt W Stolz,Daniel D Tune,Benjamin S Flavel

doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.141

Benedikt W Stolz, Daniel D Tune + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.7.141

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Abstract

Recent results in the field of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells have suggested that the best performance is obtained when the nanotube film provides good coverage of the silicon surface and when the nanotubes in the film are aligned parallel to the surface. The recently developed process of dry shear aligning – in which shear force is applied to the surface of carbon nanotube thin films in the dry state, has been shown to yield nanotube films that are very flat and in which the surface nanotubes are very well aligned in the direction of shear. It is thus reasonable to expect that nanotube films subjected to dry shear aligning should outperform otherwise identical films formed by other processes. In this work, the fabrication and characterisation of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells using such films is reported, and the photovoltaic performance of devices produced with and without dry shear aligning is compared.

Highlights

During the last decade or so, the potential benefits of using carbon nanotubes in solar cells has been explored from both a fundamental theory point of view [1,2], as well as experimentally in a host of different device architectures, including as additives in dye solar cells [3,4], organic photovoltaics [5,6], and perovskites [7,8] and as the active light absorbing component in conjunction with acceptors such as fullerenes [9,10,11,12]
We report the results of a direct comparison between two sets of solar cells fabricated with either, a) nanotube films produced by common vacuum filtration from aqueous suspension or, b) identical films that have been subjected to DSA before deposition onto the silicon surface
A comparison was made between carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells made with either as-prepared, vacuum filtration nanotube films or the same films after flattening and aligning of the nanotubes on the contacting surface of the films using the newly developed technique of dry shear aligning

Summary

Introduction

During the last decade or so, the potential benefits of using carbon nanotubes in solar cells has been explored from both a fundamental theory point of view [1,2], as well as experimentally in a host of different device architectures, including as additives in dye solar cells [3,4], organic photovoltaics [5,6], and perovskites [7,8] and as the active light absorbing component in conjunction with acceptors such as fullerenes [9,10,11,12]. It was further suggested that perhaps such films may yield similar improvements in carbon nanotube–silicon solar cell performance [43].

Results

Conclusion