Michigan Tech research discovers graphene boosts efficiency of next-gen solar cells

Solar panels seem to be a hot spot for researchers in the U.P lately, and with good reason. The clean energy industry seems more than ever on the edge of wide consumer acceptance and affordability, and a lot of folks here in Michigan are betting on it for the future.

At Michigan Technological University, a team has been experimenting with a nanomaterial called graphene that they think could help make solar panels more efficient.

Yun Hang Hu, professor of materials science and engineering at Tech, worked with a team of students and researchers to use graphene to add electrical conductivity to a type of existing solar panel system, dye-sensitized solar cells. The dye-sensitized solar cells are less costly than other solar cells, but produce less solar energy. Adding graphene might increase that energy output.

“I”s low-cost and very easy to prepare,” says Hu. But the team’s real challenge was finding just the right mix of graphene to use. “If you use too much graphene, it will absorb the light in the solar cell and reduce its efficiency,” Hu says.

Hu and the other researchers have submitted a paper outlining their research to scientific journals, and recently presented the work at the U.S.-Egypt Joint Workshop on Solar Energy Systems.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Yun Hang Hu, Michigan Technological University