Water-Based High Shear Exfoliated Graphene-Based Semi-Transparent Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells for Solar Power Window Application

Abstract

Here, we present an environmentally friendly, cost-effective, large-scale production of water-based graphene suspensions by the liquid phase high shear exfoliation method of natural graphite. The produced water-based graphene suspensions are stable for a period exceeding a year. As-prepared graphene suspensions are used to fabricate transparent platinum-free counter electrodes, having transparency comparable with bare fluorine-doped tin oxide and thereby semi-transparent dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), with ≍70% transmittance. The performance of this graphene-based semi-transparent DSSCs is tested under various power illuminations to demonstrate their use for solar power window application in building integrated photovoltaic systems. The fabricated cells were stable for more than 500 h under constant illumination with negligible efficiency drop.