This review covers the different methods of graphene fabrication and broadly discusses the recent advances in graphene-based solar cells, including bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic, dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cell deices.
In the past two decades graphene has been merged with the concept of photovoltaic (PV) material and exhibited a significant role as a transparent electrode, hole/electron transport material and interfacial buffer layer in solar cell devices.
The paper also covers advancements in the 10 different types of solar cell technologies caused by the incorporation of graphene and its derivatives in solar cell architecture. Graphene-based solar cells are observed to outperform those solar cells with the same configuration but lacking the presence of graphene in them.
This paper clearly mentions its applications as an efficient transparent conducting electrode, photoactive layer and Schottky junction formation. The paper also covers advancements in the 10 different types of solar cell technologies caused by the incorporation of graphene and its derivatives in solar cell architecture.
Key works related to graphene-based solar cells are reviewed and critically studied. Performance of graphene-based PVs is improved by functionalization, doping and oxidation. Flexibility of cells is improved with the use of graphene as transparent conductive electrode.
Graphene-based materials are also capable of functioning as charge selective and transport components in solar cell buffer layers. Moreover, low air stability and atmospheric degradation of the photovoltaic devices can be improved with graphene encapsulation due to its stable highly packed 2D structure.