Thermal Management of Concentrated Multi-Junction Solar Cells with Graphene-Enhanced Thermal Interface Materials

Mohammed Saadah,Edward Hernandez,Alexander Balandin

doi:10.3390/app7060589

Mohammed Saadah, Edward Hernandez + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app7060589

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: Jun 7, 2017
Citations: 58	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of California, Riverside

Abstract

We report results of experimental investigation of temperature rise in concentrated multi-junction photovoltaic solar cells with graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials. Graphene and few-layer graphene fillers, produced by a scalable environmentally-friendly liquid-phase exfoliation technique, were incorporated into conventional thermal interface materials. Graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials have been applied between a solar cell and heat sink to improve heat dissipation. The performance of the multi-junction solar cells has been tested using an industry-standard solar simulator under a light concentration of up to 2000 suns. It was found that the application of graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials allows one to reduce the solar cell temperature and increase the open-circuit voltage. We demonstrated that the use of graphene helps in recovering a significant amount of the power loss due to solar cell overheating. The obtained results are important for the development of new technologies for thermal management of concentrated photovoltaic solar cells.

Highlights

The interest to photovoltaic (PV) solar cells as a source of energy for a variety of applications has been rapidly increasing in recent years [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Given a strong current interest to the concentrator solar cells [47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55] and the problems with their thermal management, in this work we examine a feasibility of using graphene and Few-layer graphene (FLG) fillers for heat removal from advanced photovoltaic solar cells
We reported results of an investigation of temperature increase in concentrated multi-junction solar cells with thermal interface materials enhanced by addition of a small loading fraction of graphene

Summary

Introduction

The interest to photovoltaic (PV) solar cells as a source of energy for a variety of applications has been rapidly increasing in recent years [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that are strongly bonded in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice This material has proven to have an unusually high thermal conductivity with intrinsic values. This material has proven to have an unusually high thermal conductivity with intrinsic values in the range of 2000 to 5000 W/mK near room temperature [46]. Few-layer graphene (FLG) flakes can be more efficient as fillers because their thermal conductivity is less subject to degradation upon surface exposure to the base material of the composite [43,45]. Given a strong current interest to the concentrator solar cells [47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55] and the problems with their thermal management, in this work we examine a feasibility of using graphene and FLG fillers for heat removal from advanced photovoltaic solar cells

Material Preparation and Characterization

Testing of the Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Discussion

Open-circuit

Conclusions