Moving Toward a Carbon-based Solar Cell

Friday, April 09 2010

To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have attached what amounts to a 3D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. The scientists say they were able to dissolve sheets containing as many as 168 carbon atoms, which is a first.

"At the moment the most common materials for absorbing light in solar cells are silicon and compounds containing ruthenium. Each has disadvantages," said chemist Liang-shi Li, who led the research.

Their main disadvantage is cost and long-term availability. Ruthenium-based solar cells can potentially be cheaper than silicon-based ones, but ruthenium is a rare metal and will run out quickly when the demand increases.

Carbon is cheap and abundant, and in the form of graphene, capable of absorbing a wide range of light frequencies. Graphene is a single sheet of carbon, one atom thick, and shows promise as an effective, cheap-to-produce, and less toxic alternative to other materials currently used in solar cells.