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Carbon Nanotube: Synthesis and Application in Solar Cell

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DOI: 10.1007/s10904-016-0401-z

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J Inorg Organomet Polym
DOI 10.1007/s10904-016-0401-z
Carbon Nanotube: Synthesis and Application in Solar Cell
Utkarsh Kumar1 • Samiksha Sikarwar1 • Rakesh K. Sonker1 • B. C. Yadav1
Received: 29 March 2016 / Accepted: 19 June 2016
 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes have a cylin-
drical and hollow spherical molecular structure with out-
standing mechanical and electronic properties. Their
versatility is outstanding and envisioned by the wide
application range from field emission displays to impreg-
nated metal composites, battery storage media, and nano-
electronic devices. The combination of simple materials,
diverse behavior, and ease of fabrication make these
materials a cornerstone topic in current research. They
have very wide applications in electronic devices and
identifying the potential applications which is due to low
bias transport at several nanometers. Since valance and
conduction bands are symmetric, so they have a direct band
gap and due to this it can be used in optical emission. CNTs
can be synthesized via three techniques such as arc dis-
charge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition, but
the CVD process is mainly used for the synthesis because
the CNT yield in such case will be more than 98 % pure.
100 % pure MWCNTs having multiple chirality results the
enhanced optical property and better employment as light
harvesting material. The dye sensitized solar cells are
fabricated using CNT composites and functionalized nan-
otubes. The synthesis of CNT and its application in solar
cell are presented in this short review.
Keywords Carbon nanotubes  CVD  MWCNT  Solar
Cell
& B. C. Yadav
balchandra_yadav@rediffmail.com
1 wrapping of graphene sheet along the axial direction.
Nanomaterials and Sensors Research Laboratory, Department
of Applied Physics, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar
University, Lucknow, U P 226025, India
1 Introduction
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) discovered by Sumio Iijima in
1991 [1], have promising applications in the field of
nanoscience and nanotechnology. It has a large surface to
volume ratio, and has a specific structured arrangement of
carbon atoms. Multiple chiral carbon nanotubes are used
for the solar cell application. Chirality will increase the
absorbing power of CNTs so that the semiconducting
nanotube yields the maximum photocurrent which increa-
ses the border range of the solar spectrum. Carbon Nan-
otubes (CNTs) have received an extraordinary interest due
to their exceptional and highly desirable thermal, electrical,
and mechanical properties [2–5]. The combination of
CNTs with other nanomaterial or functionalized with dif-
ferent acidic groups is used as gas sensors or biosensors,
sometimes it can also be functionalized for making dye
sensitized solar cell.
CNTs have been synthesized by many techniques, but
CVD technique is the best method to synthesize the nan-
otube with the controlled conditions [32, 33]. As in the arc
discharge process if catalysts such as nickel, cobalt are
used, then single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are
formed and without using catalysts multi walled nanotubes
(MWNT) are formed. Some other parameters like length
and the diameters are controlled by the flow of carrier
gases, temperature and nature of evaporating materials in
case of CVD.
1.1 Carbon Nanotube
Carbon nanotubes are the seamless cylinders formed by the
Depending on rolled graphene sheet, CNTs can be classi-
fied as single walled nanotubes (SWNT) and multi walled
123

nanotube (MWNT) [6]. The rolling vector (chiral vector)
decides the structure of nanotube which may be either in
zig-zag, armchair or chiral form. The physical, chemical
and optical properties of carbon nanotubes are controlled
by the synthesis process.
1.2 Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are produced by three main techniques;
arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposi-
tion. Growth of CNTs by arc discharge and laser involve
the addition of carbon dimers (C2) to the CNT edges.
Sometime CNTs are also prepared by flame synthesis using
camphor or mesh like structure [7].
In the arc discharge process the atmosphere of inert gas
or some carbon containing gas is created by an arc dis-
charge between two carbon electrodes [8] with or without
catalyst. In the laser ablation technique, a high power laser
beam impinges on a volume of carbon containing feedstock
gas. Laser ablation produces a small amount of clean
nanotubes [10], whereas arc discharge method generally
produces large quantities of impure CNTs.
CVD results in MWNTs or poor quality SWNTs. The
SWNTs produced with CVD have a large diameter range.
1.3 Different Mechanism of Synthesis
1.3.1 Growth Mechanism
Nanotubes are formed by a gas phase process which starts
with evaporated gas from the source of carbon; gases will
be evaporated from a surface due to heating by laser pulses
or through heating by arcs or solar radioactive fluxes. Each
technique has common aspect and they have various pro-
posed mechanism for the formation of SWNT.
Such process consists of three steps; firstly the formation
of a precursor consisting of some metal nanoparticles that
provides the nucleation point at high temperatures then
dissociation of gas takes place. Later the carbon atoms are
deposited on the nucleation point and the growth will start
in two ways: in root growth the catalyst will be placed at
the bottom of the tubes and in tip growth the catalyst will at
the top of the tubes (Fig. 1).
1.3.2 Reaction Mechanism
Carbon nanotubes are also formed by reactions, in which
the hydrocarbon molecules are decomposed on free Ni, Co
metal surface, producing carbon atom with the simultane-
ous evolution of molecular hydrogen.
Growth of carbon nanotubes and nano-fibers are based
on decomposition on supported Ni crystal by magneto
metric using methane. This is due to the reason that high
123
J Inorg Organomet Polym
Extrusion or root growth
Metal
C C
Tip growth
C
Metal
Support
Fig. 1 Growth mechanism of carbon nanotubes
electrons as carriers are generated at high temperature
which creates nucleation point for the growth of nanotube.
Carbon atoms are decomposed from methane gas and
deposited on the surface of Ni particle dissolved into bulk
and form sub-stoichiometric nickel carbide at the early
stage. This carbide phase then decomposes into metallic
nickel particle and outside graphite layers which encapsu-
late the host nickel particles. The metal particle is then
squeezed out by a strong pressure buildup due to the for-
mation of graphite layer at the internal surface of graphite
envelope. This is possible because of the liquid like
behavior of the metal due to melting point depression from
the dissolution of carbon atoms that remained in the bulk;
the fresh surface of the squeezed out Ni particle will further
decompose the methane and continues the growth of car-
bon nanotube.
2 Different Synthesis Techniques
2.1 Arc-Discharge
In this method, under the inert atmosphere, carbon vapor is
created by an arc discharge between two carbon electrodes
[8] with or without catalyst. The arc discharge method
initially used for producing C60 fullerenes [9], is the most
common and easiest way to produce carbon nanotubes.
However, these techniques produce a mixture of compo-
nents and require splitting of nanotubes from the soot and
the catalytic metals present in the basic product.
This method produces nanotubes through arc-vaporiza-
tion by two carbon rods [11] placed end to end with distance
at approximately 1 mm and the chamber is usually filled with
inert gas (helium/argon) at low pressure (between 50 and
700 mbar). In recent investigations, it is found that produc-
tion of carbon nanotubes in liquid nitrogen, deionized water
and NaCl solution are also possible. A direct current of
50–100 A driven by *20 V creates a high temperature
discharge of 2000–3000 C between the two electrodes. The
J Inorg Organomet Polym

Table 1 Synthesis of carbon nanotubes by an arc discharge method under various conditions
Arc discharge Circumstances Product Remark Ref.
method

Arc discharge KCl/FeS catalyst under the atmosphere of Ar DWNT (double walled Large and high quality, diameter [12–16]
nanotubes) 2–6 nm
Mixture of catalyst using Co/Ni/Fe with Large length and diameter of
small quantity of S in the atmosphere of Ar 4–7 nm
Catalyst used FeS, CoS in the atmosphere of Bundles of high quantity
hydrogen nanotubes
Using graphite electrode in the atmosphere Optimization process
of hydrogen
Plasma rotating Pure graphite electrodes using hydrogen CNT Large scale of production [17]
arc discharge atmosphere
Liquid arc Deionized water MWNT, carbon onions, CNTs Metal filled inside the tubes [18–30]
discharge NaCl solution with electrodes in liquid MWNT, carbon nano capsules, Irregular morphology with
environment SWNT disordered shape
Toluene with using different catalyst Tube like and spheroid Continuous production of tubes
nanocarbon,
Y/Ni and CaC2 catalyst under the SWNT, fullerenes, SWNT High purity and high yield with
atmosphere of helium fibers, metallo-fullerenes, the diameter of 0.9–14 nm
CNTs
Using polymer such as PVA and PVA/Fe and MWNTs, sheet like structures, The type of product totally
various Fe sources spherical particles, beaded depends on the catalytic
CNTs composition

discharge vaporizes from one carbon rod and deposited on for swnt
for mwnt
the other rod. The yield of nanotubes depends on the uni- Power supply
Power supply
formity of the plasma arc and the temperature of the deposit
form on the carbon electrode. Synthesis of CNTs by the Inert
discharge method using different conditions is presented in Inert atmosphere atmosphere
Table 1. Cathode
The above table describes how the nanotubes were graphite rod
Cathode Anode With catalyst like Anode
formed by changing the surroundings of arc discharge graphite rod Co, Ni,
chamber and material used in the electrode. For high yield
and purity of CNTs, fullerenes etc. Y/N2 and CaC2 were
used under helium atmosphere. Carbon onions, MWNT
and CNTs were prepared by using the deionized water in
liquid arc discharge method. Fig. 2 Arc discharge method for synthesis of SWNT and MWNT
The nanotubes obtained during this process are usually
short in range with the diameter ranging from 0.6 to 1.4 nm
for single walled and 10 –14 nm for diameter multi-walled 2.2 Laser Ablation Method
nanotubes. These tubes can be single walled tubes or
multiple walled nanotubes, depending whether the catalyst A standard laser ablation process occurs in a tubular
is placed in rod or not. This method is relatively easy to furnace in which a block of graphite mixed with the
implement, and has yield of *30 %. The nanotubes pro- catalytic metals such as Ni, Co, Pt etc. is heated from 700
duced in such process having high impurity and large to 1500 K. The graphite block is then targeted with a high
defects, in comparisons with other method; and lengths of energy laser and argon (Ar) gas is pumped in the direc-
the tubes are somewhat random. tion of laser. As laser ablates the target, carbon nanotubes
Both the single walled nanotubes and multi walled are formed and carried by the gas flow into a cooled
nanotubes created by this method are to be decided by the copper collector.
synthesis process followed by the doping of Ni/Co in anode The mechanism for the formation of nanotube is same as
which yields the SWNT and the use of pure graphite rod the arc discharge in which the laser will penetrate the target
without any doping yields the MWNT (Fig. 2). material and the vapor of carbon is created inside the

123
 J Inorg Organomet Polym

Table 2 Synthesis of carbon nanotubes by laser ablation method at various conditions

Laser Materials Circumstances References

CO2 continuous SWNT bundles with bamboo like Laser power 400–900 W [31]
wave structure At room temperature
Ar atmosphere under 200–400 torr
SWNT bundles High temperature 1100 C with Ar and He atmosphere under 50–500 torr [32]
CO2 pulsed wave SWNTs Laser power 12-9-6 kW with Ar and N2 atmosphere 50–450 torr [33–35]
Pulsed Nd-YAG Thin SWNT Gas flow rate [36]
Laser SWNT bundles Laser intensity 532 nm, 1024 W [37]
Using catalyst C,Ni,Co under atmosphere of Ar
Furnace temp 800–1150 C
SWNT Laser intensity varies, furnace temperature 550 C and depends on gas [38]
flow rate and pressure
XeCl excimer SWNT bundles, fullerenes, Furnace temperature 1100–1350 C using catalyst C, Co, Ni under Ar [39]
atmosphere
KrF excimer MWNT, nano onions Target metals using composite of C/Co, C/Co/Ni in the atmosphere O2 [40]
and Ar at room temp
Carbon nano horns Using pure carbon in the atmosphere of Ar, Ne, He [41]

chamber which will grow on the cooled copper collector by
growth mechanism. This process may not be easily
implemented, but high heating furnace is required for yield
up to 70 %.
Table 2 describes the production of nanotubes by using
different types of lasers with varied target materials and
atmosphere. Power and intensity of laser source cause the
phenomenon of ablation which gives CNTs of different
diameters and lengths.
2.3 Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Method
A typical CVD process involves a substrate, which is
exposed to one or more volatile precursors, placed in
quartz tube and heated to desired growth temperature.
Carbon carrying gas is flowing through the quartz tube with
predetermined flow rate and temperature. After growth
mechanism the furnace is slowly cooled down and the
wafer is inspected for the nanotube growth.
Table 3 describes the synthesis of CNTs by using dif-
ferent substrates in CVD chamber by the variation of
temperature and carbon containing gases in which the
lowest growth is found at 650 C using CO2, but in this
case the gas released is very toxic. To avoid the formation
of toxic gases, methane gas is used for this synthesis which
easily gets hydrolyzed.
These techniques were firstly used for silicon substrate
to grow single walled nanotubes [49]. The CVD process
[42, 48, 50, 51] has also gained the popularity for pure
SWNT growth (Fig. 3).
2.4 Precursor
Carbon containing compounds have been used as precur-
sors and the most common ones are: carbon monoxide
(CO) [46, 50, 51], methane (CH4) [52], ethylene (C2H4)
[48], acetylene (C2H2) [53], benzene (C6H6) [45], toluene
(C7H8), ethanol (C2H5OH) [45], and methanol (CH3OH).
Each gas decomposes at different temperatures, cause to
grow nanotube. Sometimes rate of dissociation will be
controlled by the pressure of the gases such as CO, which
will dissociate more at high pressure and causes to increase
the yield of nanotubes. The flow rate causes growth of
nanotubes; sometime larger nanotube will be formed at
slow flow rate in comparison to higher flow rate. Some-
times carbon precursor also produces unwanted nanotubes
by premixed gas in the cylinder, therefore, for producing
well aligned or well controlled nanotubes, a gas filter or
sometimes cleaning gas is used in the CVD chamber.
2.5 Electrical Properties of CNTs
Electrical property of carbon nanotube can be easily
understood from the band structure of graphene [54]. By
analyzing the band structure by zone folding approxima-
tion we found that the allowed k-points in the Brillouin
zone are confined to parallel lines. The band structure of
the graphene gives an idea of finding the model of nan-
otubes and its electronic energies along the allowed lines as
shown in Fig. 4 in which the subfigures (a) (b) and
(c) represent the band structure of graphene, p-type and
n-type nanotubes respectively.

123
J Inorg Organomet Polym

Table 3 Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube by Chemical Vapor with different gases on various types of substrate
Precursor Carrier gas Temp. Flow rate Advantage Disadvantage Reference.

Si/SiO2 with CO with H2 900 C 1000 Sccm for both gases * Good growth is * Self deposition causes [42, 43]
some (30–70 %) achieved by adding amorphous carbon
catalyst like hydrogen deposited in quartz tube.
Fe * Efficient * Hazardous nature of CO
production of long so exhaust properly.
SWNT by fast * Metal impurity
heating technique destroying the flow rate
controller
Co either in C2H5OH 750 C without 450 Sccm for Ar 50 Sccm * Low temperature * Sometimes impurities [44, 45]
solution or with Ar H2 for H2 method for growing may be found as
in thin film and H2 gas 860 C with SWNT analyzed under Raman
form H2 * Ultra-long spectroscopy
nanotube and
* Multiple chiral
nanotubes are
found.
Silicon wafer CH4 with H2 940–980 C 2 sccm for CH4 and 4 * Low flow rate * High temperature [46, 47]
with Sccm for H2 required for the requires for growth
Mueller growth mechanism. mechanism
catalyst * Ultra long
Nanotube will be
obtained.
Si/SiO2 with Ethylene 750 C 150 Sccm for ethylene and * Ultra tall vertical * Defects may be created [48]
Fe catalyst with water 40 Sccm for Ar. forest of nanotube some time
vapor and Also cooled after growth is to found,
Ar gas with flow of Ar at 600 * Water will help the
Sccm and H2 at 400 self-cleaning and
Sccm increases the life
time

Fig. 3 Reaction mechanism in Main gas

CVD chamber flow

Gas phase reaction

Desorption and
Volatile reaction

Desorption of
precursor
Transport to
surface

Surface diffusion Step growth

Adsorption of
Film precursor Nucleation
Island growth

The length and orientation of these lines are determined the parameters can turn CNTs from metallic to semicon-
by the (n, m) pair of integers. Although this approximation ducting state.
also provides us many useful details about the electrical Each graphite structure has carbon, which contains two
properties of carbon nanotubes and a slight difference in 1s electron, one 2p electron and three sp2 electron [55]. The

123

Fig. 4 Band structure of CNT
a band diagram of graphene,
b band diagram of metallic CNT
c band diagram of
semiconducting CNT
three sp2 electrons form three bonds in the band at the
plane of graphene sheet, leaving an unsaturated p-orbital.
This p-orbital, perpendicular to the graphene thus the
nanotube surface, forms a delocalized p-network across the
nanotube responsible for the electronic property. Armchair
CNTs should show metallic behavior having band degen-
eracy between highest p valance band to lowest p con-
duction band. The point at which these bands meet, is
known as Fermi level and a new type of CNT i.e. metallic
nanotube is formed. The conduction of metallic CNTs is
ballistic and least sensitive towards gate voltage. Semi-
conducting nanotube with small band gap is useful for
transistor and sensor applications (Fig. 4).
2.6 Chemical Properties of CNTs
According to band structure nanotubes are bonded
according to sp2 hybridization so the pyram-idalization
angle Hp is 0. Hamon et al. [56] and Niyogi et al. [57]
observed that the angle of pyramidalization of a carbon
atom is not 0 but it is 11.6 at the end caps, which is very
close to tetrahedral. But the angle of pyramidalization of
sidewalls of nanotube is 6 due to this finite value, the
tubular nanotube introduces strain. p-orbital mismatchs the
strain present in nanotube [58]. The end cap [59] has large
reactivity because it has a large pyramidalization angle and
low reactivity for side walls [60] due to low pyramidal-
ization angle.
Defect in nanotube may arise during the synthesis pro-
cess due to the presence of stone walls like structural defect
[61–63] builds sp3 character on the hexagonal network of
tubular nanostructures. Defects will increase the reactivity
of nanotubes thus the gases will adsorb on the surface so
the rate of functionalization will be increased [64–66].
123
J Inorg Organomet Polym
3 Functionalization of CNTs
CNTs have inert surface property, but they are generally
insoluble in solvent because of strong Vander Wall inter-
action that tightly holds them together forming bundles.
For many other applications, the solubility will increase by
some modification called functionalization. The function-
alization method will be categorized into two following
major groups:
3.1 Inside Functionalization (Endohedral)
In this, nanoparticles of different materials are filled inside
the nanotubes for functionalization, which can be achieved
by spontaneous penetration of exploiting the situation
where nanotubes are filled with colloidal suspensions. This
process followed by the capillary action of the tubes; or by
wet chemistry, when the nanotubes are filled with some
compounds, they will react at a particular temperature and
pressure after several circumstances resulting nanoparticle
which are trapped inside the nanotube [67, 68].
3.2 Chemical Functionalization From Outside
(Exohedral)
This group can also be subdivided into three subgroups
based on the mechanism of attachment in which the dif-
ferent groups or compounds are attached to the sidewall of
the nanotube:
(i) Covalent functionalization in which the func-
tionalization group is attached either on the
defect side or at the end of the tubes [69, 70].
J Inorg Organomet Polym
(ii) Covalent functionalization through ‘‘sidewall
functionalization’’ [71, 72].
(iii) Non-covalent exohedral functionalization is the
process in which the nanotubes are wrapped
inside the polymer [73, 74].
Table 4 describes the different methods for functional-
izing nanotubes and their applications in different field
with various advantages and disadvantages. The sidewall
functionalization with cyclo and nucleophilic addition
radical reactions is the best for solar cells.
4 CNT as a Solar Cell
In the present world most of the energy is produced by the
fossil fuel, but they also produce very dangerous and
hazardous gases like carbon monoxide, which pollutes the
environment every second. Therefore for producing clean
energy we use solar energy which is eco-friendly and does
not disturb the economical balance. For utilizing more and
more solar energy, solar cells may be fabricated which
converts solar energy into the electrical energy and this
electrical energy may be stored in batteries through
charging. Operation of a solar cell depends on following
factors:
• Absorption of light to create electron–hole pairs.
• Diffusion of charge carriers.
• Separation of electron and hole.
• Collection of charge carriers.
4.1 Efficiency
The efficiency of solar cells is categorized in different
classes like thermodynamic efficiency, reflectance effi-
ciency, charge carrier separation efficiency and reflectance
efficiency. The overall efficiency of solar cells is the pro-
duct of all these individual efficiencies.
The solar cells usually have a high voltage dependent
efficiency curves, temperature coefficients and shadow
angles. Due to difficulty in measuring these parameters
directly, we use the ratio of powers to measure the effi-
ciency of solar cell.
Solar cell efficiency (P) is defined as the ratio of output
power to the input power
Y output power
¼ : ð1Þ
input power
5 Mechanism of Solar Cell
The working of solar cells is based on the transition of
free electrons by gaining the extra energy when photons
are incident at the film surface. Now, after analyzing the
band structure of the solar cell, Bu Jong et al. found that
cell gains energy from the photons and generates free
electrons, which recombines and generates some photo-
voltaic current so the binding energy of the film will
decrease which indicates that the maximum number of
electrons are generated. Therefore, for increasing the
efficiency of solar cell, thin film based method is used in
which large amount of light is absorbed for a broader
range of the solar spectrum. Theory of solar cell is
defined in following steps:
(1) Photons in sunlight strike the solar panel and are
absorbed by semiconducting materials, such as
silicon and germanium.
(2) Electrons (negative charged) are excited from their
current molecular/atomic orbitals. Once excited, the
electron can either dissipate the energy and return to
its orbital or travel through the cell until it reaches an
electrode. Current starts flowing through the material
to cancel the potential and this electricity is captured.
Due to the special composition of solar cells, the
electrons are only allowed to move in a single
direction.
(3) An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a
usable amount of direct current (DC) electricity.
On analyzing those solar cells, it was found that the
efficiency had increased by a little amount. Therefore, for
further increasing the efficiency of solar cell, carbon nan-
otubes were used in these cells which acts as a p-type
semiconductor and silica acts as n-type semiconductor and
thus hetro-junctions were formed between silica and
SWNT as shown in Fig. 5.
From Fig. 5, we analyze that the CNTs act as p-type
semiconductor and silica based materials act as n-type
semiconductor so the transition of electrons and holes
start when hetero-junction would be formed establishing
a certain band-gap between them. After emerging the
light on such cell the holes gain energy and transfer
electrons from silica to CNT thus generating the photo-
voltaic current which is stored in the battery. After
analyzing SWNT, it was found that the absorption power
was increased on replacing the SWNT to poly chiral
MWNT. The MWNT absorbed a broad range of
frequency spectrum in comparison with all other solar
cells.
123
123
Table 4 Functionalization of carbon nanotubes by various methods
Functionalization type Mechanism Advantage Disadvantage Area of application Ref.

Exohedral functionalization
Covalent functionalization
Sidewall functionalization
Defect or end functionalization
Non covalent functionalization
Endohedral functionalization
Cyclo and nucleophilic addition radical * Production of stable functionalized * Destruction and * Chemical sensors [69, 70]
reactions CNTs shortening of carbon * LED
* Easily dispersed in chemical solvent nanotube which
* Solar cell
with a high degree of disintegrate the chemical
and physical property * Transistor
functionalization
Oxidation of carbon nanotubes e.g. * Easily produced and simply dispersed * Having small surface area * Chemical sensors [71, 72]
carboxyl functionalization in polar solvents with some destructed * LED
network
* Solar cell
* Transistor
Vander wall interaction in which CNTs * Electronic, chemical property and * Unstable nanotubes will * CNT based polymer [73, 74]
are wrapped with polymers length of tubes will not be affected found and dispersibility in composite used in
covalent solution is low aerospace
* CNT based biomolecule
composite used in
biosensors
Wet chemistry in which materials are * Structure is preserved and length is * Outer surface remains * Hydrogen storage [67, 68]
filled inside the tube by capillary also not affected unusual materials
action * Drug delivery system
J Inorg Organomet Polym
J Inorg Organomet Polym
CB
p-type
VB
n-type
Light
CB
VB
Fig. 5 Diagram showing the variation of band structure of CNT
based solar cell
6 Thin Film Based Solar Cell
Thin film technique reduces the amount of material
required for creating solar cells and most of the thin film
based solar cells are manufactured by the sandwiching of
thin film between two panes of glass to make a module.
Cost comparison for per unit power production between
fossil fuel combustion and silicon solar cells was found to
yield a large difference. The main component of these cells
is a thin material coating. Fabrication of these solar cells
requires a very low quantity of material (compared to sil-
icon wafers, it is only 1 %). This is the main reason why
this technology is cheaper to some extent. The majority of
this type of cells is made from amorphous silicon that is
devoid of a crystalline structure. These are much cheaper
fabricators, but have a very low efficiency of about 8 %.
Incorporation of nanomaterials into thin-film solar cells
enhances conversion efficiency at a lesser cost. Now-a-
days, many nanomaterials are investigated for photovoltaic
applications. The following are the three benefits of using
nano-structured layers in thin-film solar cells:
(a) The effective optical absorption path becomes larger
than actual film thickness because of multiple
reflections.
(b) There is a reduction in recombination losses due to
the shorter path followed by light-generated electrons
and holes. The absorber layer thickness in traditional
thin-film solar cells is in lm, while in nano-structured
solar cells it can be as thin as 150 nm.
(c) Energy band gap of different layers, made for desired
design value, uses nanoparticles of various sizes. This
allows more design flexibility in the absorber and
window layers of the solar cells. ‘Al’ and ‘W’ are used
as dopants for enhancing photovoltaic properties, Al-
doped titanium dioxide and electrodes increase open
circuit voltage (Voc), but reduce short-circuit current (Isc)
[81].
Table 5 depicts the efficiency of synthesis techniques
with advantages and disadvantages of different types of
solar cells. It can be seen that the efficiency of solar cell
increases on incorporating the carbon nanotubes inside the
cell. Bu-jong et al. had fabricated new solar cell by using
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) which is twice efficient for
converting sunlight into electrical power than the previous
one [75].
The other carbon nanomaterials like fullerene and gra-
phene can also be used for the fabrication of solar cell as
they show the photovoltaic properties by enhancing the
absorption range. R.G. Shrestha et al. [82] synthesized one-
dimensional (1D) single-crystalline fullerene C60 nanorods
by using ultrarapid interfacial formation method at room
temperature. The nanorods were of *11 lm in length
and *215 nm in diameter with hexagonal close-packed
crystal structure. The optical transitions revealed the
dominance of charge transfer excitonic transitions with
excellent charge transfer characteristic. In another work,
L.K. Shrestha et al. [83] reported the surfactant-triggered
assembly of fullerene (C60) into 3D flower-like micro-
crystals at the liquid–liquid interface following the growth
of crystals using a liquid–liquid interfacial precipitation
(LLIP) method by layering surfactant solution. These
microcrystals have a better future scope in solar cell based
opto-electronic devices (Fig. 6). In another work [84], he
synthesized macroporous and mesoporous fullerene crys-
tals with bimodal pore architectures using the same (LLIP)
method which can be used for the fabrication of nanode-
vices including organic solar cells.
Graphene is different from most 3-d materials. Intrinsic
graphene is known to be a zero-gap semiconductor or a
semi-metal. It has very high electron mobility, almost two
times than that of Si thereby making it highly conducting.
As well, since it causes a direct band gap, thus can absorb
more photons in a much thinner region as compared to
indirect band gap semiconductors like Si. Graphene, hav-
ing special optical properties, can be applied as transparent
electrodes and interconnects the two sub cells in tandem
solar cells. It is a carbon sheet of one atom thickness,
consisting of condensed six member rings. The carbon
atoms are sp2 bonded and form a hexagonal 2D lattice.
Ideal graphene has a very high carrier mobility of the order
of 105 cm2/(V–s) at room temperature. This exceeds the
carrier mobility of Silicon by one or two orders suggesting
that graphene can be used as a replacement for Silicon in
nano-electronics. Besides its exceptional electrical prop-
erties, it has very high mechanical durability. Graphene
also has a tunable bandgap. 3D graphene is known as
graphite. It is the thinnest material with highest strength; it
is also highly transparent & highly conducting. This makes
graphene an attractive option to form transparent electrodes
in solar cells [89].
123
 J Inorg Organomet Polym

Table 5 Development of solar cells by various methods

Materials Deposition techniques Theoretical/experimental Junction Advantage Problem Reference.
efficiency

CdTe/CdS Evaporation sublimation, screen 30 %/16 % Controversial Good stability, Toxicity of [76]
printing technique high module Cd,
efficiency availability of
Te
CuIn (G)- Evaporation, sputter deposition, 28–30 %/20 % Homo- Good stability Multiple [77]
Se(S) electroplating, spray deposition junction binary
phase,
cell to cell
mismatch
CZTS(Se) PVD, sputtering, spray pyrolysis, 30 %/9.6 % Direct Band Abundant, Mixed [78]
screen printing gap 1.4- cheap, green phases,
1.6 eV material difficult to
synthesize
PEC using PVD, sputtering, 30 %/upto 12 % Direct band Lighter, flexible Difficult to [79]
dyed TiO2/ Electroplating gap manufacture
TCO
CNT based CVD, sputtering, electroplating More than 30 %/16 % Direct band Lighter, Costly [80]
gap flexible,
highly
efficient

Light
Ag
containing SWCNTs have so far suffered from limited
MoOx current and voltage, and therefore poor power-conversion
ZnO, NW
ITO efficiencies [75].
s-MWCNTs

Glass
7 Conclusion

A systematic development of carbon nanotubes as a func-

Fig. 6 Fabrication of solar cell using carbon nanotube
Thin-film photovoltaic materials are better than con-
ventional solar-cell materials (such as silicon) because they
are lighter, more flexible and cheaper to fabricate; working
of these cells is based on the principle in which they absorb
photons from sunlight and convert them into electron–hole
pairs (or excitons). To generate electric current, an electron
and hole must be rapidly separated before the two particles
have a chance to come back together and be reabsorbed
into the material. In solar cells, the exciton must quickly
travel to another layer in the device (where the charge
separation will occur) for the best light-absorption
efficiencies.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are ideal for
thin-film photovoltaic material, as they absorb light across
a wide range of wavelengths from the visible to the near-
infrared and possess charge carriers (electrons and holes)
that move quickly. However, most thin-film cells
tion of synthesis, functionalization and application in solar
cells has been reviewed. Poly-chiral nanotubes absorb a
broader range of the solar spectrum in comparison with the
mono-chiral nanotube and are employed as thin film based
solar cell. The efficiency is also very high in poly-chiral
nanotube based solar cells.
Acknowledgments Mr. Utkarsh Kumar is grateful to Babasaheb
Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow for UGC fellowship.
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