Graphene/silicon nanowire Schottky junction for enhanced light harvesting.

Schottky junction solar cells are assembled by directly coating graphene films on n-type silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays. The graphene/SiNW junction shows enhanced light trapping and faster carrier transport compared to the graphene/planar Si structure. With chemical doping, the SiNW-based solar cells showed energy conversion efficiencies of up to 2.

Efficient energy conversion of nanotube/nanowire-based solar cells.

Hybrid photoelectrochemistry and heterojunction solar cells made from carbon nanotubes and silicon nanowires show high energy conversion efficiencies of up to 6%.

Selective microwave absorption of iron-rich carbon nanotube composites.

We report on high selectivity of microwave absorption by controlling the concentration of carbon nanotubes in polymer composites and matching the dielectric loss and magnetic loss through encapsulation of crystalline Fe nanorods inside nanotubes. The reflection loss reached more than 10 dB (> 90% absorption) by loading nanotubes at concentrations of 1 wt% to 10 wt% into the composites, and the frequencies corresponding to the maximum loss can be tailored throughout the range of 2 to 18 GHz by changing the concentration. A maximum absorption capability (75 dB x GHz) was observed at a CNT loading of about 4.

Hybrid heterojunction and photoelectrochemistry solar cell based on silicon nanowires and double-walled carbon nanotubes.

A hybrid solar cell model composed of a heterojunction cell and a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell has been proposed and characterized. In the hybrid cell, a thin film of double-walled carbon nanotubes forms a heterojunction with the silicon nanowire (SiNW) array and also functions as the transparent counter electrode of the PEC cell. The cell performance can be readily tuned by controlling the SiNW density.

Double-walled carbon nanotube solar cells.

We directly configured double-walled carbon nanotubes as energy conversion materials to fabricate thin-film solar cells, with nanotubes serving as both photogeneration sites and a charge carriers collecting/transport layer. The solar cells consist of a semitransparent thin film of nanotubes conformally coated on a n-type crystalline silicon substrate to create high-density p-n heterojunctions between nanotubes and n-Si to favor charge separation and extract electrons (through n-Si) and holes (through nanotubes). Initial tests have shown a power conversion efficiency of >1%, proving that DWNTs-on-Si is a potentially suitable configuration for making solar cells.