Technology ready use of single layer graphene as a transparent electrode for hybrid photovoltaic devices

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that large-area single-layer graphene can serve as an effective, low-cost, and flexible transparent electrode in hybrid photovoltaic devices, outperforming traditional ITO in efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a method for using CVD-grown, transferred single-layer graphene as a transparent electrode in solar cells, showing comparable or better performance than ITO.

Findings

Graphene-based electrodes achieved 3.98% efficiency.

Optical absorbance of graphene was 1.23% at 532 nm.

Graphene outperformed ITO in power conversion efficiency.

Abstract

Graphene has been used recently as a replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO) for the transparent electrode of an organic photovoltaic device. Due to its limited supply, ITO is considered as a limiting factor for the commercialization of organic solar cells. We explored the use of large-area graphene grown on copper by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and then transferred to a glass substrate as an alternative transparent electrode. The transferred film was shown by scanning Raman spectroscopy measurements to consist of >90% single layer graphene. Optical spectroscopy measurements showed that the layer-transferred graphene has an optical absorbance of 1.23% at a wavelength of 532 nm. We fabricated organic hybrid solar cells utilizing this material as an electrode and compared their performance with ITO devices fabricated using the same procedure. We demonstrated power conversion efficiency up to 3.98%, higher than that of the ITO device (3.86%), showing that layer-transferred graphene promises to be a high quality, low-cost, flexible material for transparent electrodes in solar cell technology.