journal article·2017-06-07Open access

Thermal Management of Concentrated Multi-Junction Solar Cells with Graphene-Enhanced Thermal Interface Materials

Mohammed Saadah, Edward Hernandez, Alexander Balandin

Applied Sciences· Volume 7· Issue 6

Abstract

We report results of experimental investigation of temperature rise in concentrated multi-junction photovoltaic solar cells with graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials. Graphene and few-layer graphene fillers, produced by a scalable environmentally-friendly liquid-phase exfoliation technique, were incorporated into conventional thermal interface materials. Graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials have been applied between a solar cell and heat sink to improve heat dissipation. The performance of the multi-junction solar cells has been tested using an industry-standard solar simulator under a light concentration of up to 2000 suns. It was found that the application of graphene-enhanced thermal interface materials allows one to reduce the solar cell temperature and increase the open-circuit voltage. We demonstrated that the use of graphene helps in recovering a significant amount of the power loss due to solar cell overheating. The obtained results are important for the development of new technologies for thermal management of concentrated photovoltaic solar cells.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: solar cell performance optimization · Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies · Photovoltaic System Optimization Techniques

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Nano-Device Laboratory (NDL), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

Phonon Optimized Engineered Materials (POEM) Center, Bourns College of Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

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