3D Graphene Discovered to Have Same Key Properties as Platinum in Solar Cells

Scientists at Michigan Technological University have replaced expensive platinum, a key ingredient for a novel type of solar cells, with a new material: low-cost 3D graphene.

Regular graphene is a famously two-dimensional form of carbon just a molecule or so thick. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Caroll McArthur Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MTU, and his team invented a way to synthesize a unique 3D version with a honeycomb-like structure.

The researchers determined that the 3D graphene had excellent conductivity and high catalytic activity, raising the possibility that it could be used for energy storage and conversion. So they replaced the platinum counter electrode in a dye-sensitized solar cell with one made of the 3D honeycomb graphene. Then they put the solar cell in the sunshine and measured its output.

The cell with the 3D graphene counter electrode converted 7.8 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, nearly as much as the conventional solar cell using costly platinum (8 percent).

Synthesizing the 3D honeycomb graphene is neither expensive nor difficult, said Hu, and making it into an electrode posed no special challenges.

The research has been funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund and the National Science Foundation. -- MTU

Reference:

Hui Wang et al., 3D Honeycomb-Like Structured Graphene and Its High Efficiency as a Counter-Electrode Catalyst for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Angewandte Chemie, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/ange.201303497