All Carbon Solar Cells

The different arrangements and combinations in which carbon can exist produce a wide variety of compounds that have unique physical, chemical and electrical properties. Some of these allotropes behave as conductors while others are classified as semiconducting. Our efforts focused on taking advantage of the carbon-based materials’ potential and optimally we employed them together to form an all carbon solar cell. This final report is divided into the three major directions our work focused on: sorting strategies of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes for the active solar cell light absorbing materials, doping strategies of carbon-based electrodes, and finally the demonstration of carbon-based solar cells. Single-walled carbon nanotubes originally come as a mix of metallic and semiconducting tubes; we developed sorting strategies to specifically select the semiconducting tubes optimal as sensitizers in a solar cell junction. We also developed effective doping strategies of graphene and carbon nanotube based electrodes enabling high conductivity and transparency. All of these separate parts were integrated together in an all-carbon based solar cell.