All-carbon solar cell could be used in photovoltaic devices

The results are published in the 31 October online edition of the journal ACS Nano.

‘Carbon has the potential to deliver high performance at a low cost,’ said study senior author Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. ‘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.’

Unlike rigid silicon solar panels, Stanford’s thin-film prototype is made of carbon materials that can be coated from solution.

‘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 in a statement.

The coating technique also has the potential to reduce manufacturing costs, said Stanford graduate student Michael Vosgueritchian, co-lead author of the study with postdoctoral researcher Marc Ramuz.