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Carbon nanotube-silicon (CNT-Si) solar cells represent one of the alternative photovoltaic techniques with potential for low cost and high efficiency. Here, we report a method to improve solar cell performance by depositing conventional transitional metal oxides such as WO3 and establishing a collaborative system, in which CNTs are well-embedded within the WO3 layer and both of them are in close contact to Si substrate. This unique collaborative system optimizes the overall energy conversion process including the light absorption (antireflection by WO3), carrier separation (forming quasi p-n junction) and charge collection (CNT conductive network throughout the oxide layer). Combining with our previous TiO2-coating and HNO3-doping techniques, a solar cell efficiency of >18% at an active area of 0.09 cm 2 (air mass 1.5, 100 mW/cm2) was achieved. The oxide-enhanced CNT-Si solar cells which integrate the advantages of traditional semiconductors and novel nanostructures represent a promising route toward next-generation high-performance silicon-based photovoltaics.

Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 04 June 2021
Revised: 12 July 2021
Accepted: 14 July 2021
Published: 07 August 2021
Issue date: March 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 2212028), the Natural Science Foundation of Henan province (No. 202300410371), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51325202 and 51872267) and the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2020YFA0210702).

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