Washington, Nov 1 (IANS) Researchers have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to more expensive silicon, used in photovoltaic panels currently.
"Carbon has the potential to deliver high performance at a low cost," said study senior author Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a working solar cell that has all of the components made of carbon. This study builds on previous work done in our lab," said Bao.
Unlike rigid silicon solar panels that adorn many rooftops, Stanford's thin film prototype is made of carbon materials that can be coated from solution, the journal ACS Nano said.
"Perhaps in the future we can look at alternative markets where flexible carbon solar cells are coated on the surface of buildings, on windows or on cars to generate electricity," Bao said, according to a Stanford statement.
The coating technique also has the potential to reduce manufacturing costs, said Stanford graduate student Michael Vosgueritchian, co-lead author with postdoctoral researcher Marc Ramuz.
"Processing silicon-based solar cells requires a lot of steps," Vosgueritchian explained.
"But our entire device can be built using simple coating methods that don't require expensive tools and machines."
The Bao group's experimental solar cell consists of a photoactive layer, which absorbs sunlight, sandwiched between two electrodes. In a typical thin film solar cell, the electrodes are made of conductive metals and indium tin oxide (ITO).
"Materials like indium are scarce and becoming more expensive as the demand for solar cells, touchscreen panels and other electronic devices grows," Bao said.
"Carbon, on the other hand, is low cost and earth-abundant."
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