Performance Improvement of Assembled Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Network/Si Solar Cells Decorated with Metal Nanoparticles

Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a promising material for photovoltaic applications. Here in this work, we first adopted an intriguing blown bubble method to assemble multi-walled carbon nano- tubes (MWCNTs) into conductive and transparent networks, which were then applied to construct heterojunction solar cells with n-type silicon (Si). The MWCNT/Si solar cell was relatively stable in air, and its cell performance was much reinforced after Pt nanoparticles (NPs) decorated due to the enhanced light absorption and greatly reduced sheet resistance of Pt-hybridized networks. The MWCNT-Pt/Si cell could achieve a final power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 7.4% with chemical doping. Moreover, in situ grown Au NPs were employed to fill the crevices in MWCNT networks generated during cell fabrication, and its PCE was significantly increased to 8-fold of the cracked MWCNT/Si cells by light absorbing and p-doping of Au NPs. Therefore, it is demonstrated that the metal NP-improved MWCNT/Si solar cell is convenient, easily scaled up and promising in energy harvesting applications.