Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene - Research and Applications

Researchers have demonstrated that carbon nanotubes can be used as the energy conversion materials in solar cells, which serves for the photogeneration process and charge carrier transport. The junctions formed between p-type double-walled carbon nanotubes and n-type Si act as conventional p-n junctions in the generation of electron-hole pairs, which are then transported through the nanotubes (holes) and n-Si (electrons), respectively. The nanotubes ensure much enhanced current density and power efficiency of solar cells compared with extensively studied polymer-nanotube composite structures. The researchers believe that the concept also could apply to other cheaper or flexible thin-film substrates in the future research for low-cost production.
Source: Nano Letters 2007 Vol. 7, No. 8, 2317-2321.