In 2012, researchers from the University of Florida reported a record efficiency of 8.6 percent for a prototype solar cell consisting of a wafer of silicon coated with a layer of graphene doped with trifluoromethanesulfonyl-amide (TFSA). Now another team is claiming a new record efficiency of 15.6 percent for a graphene-based solar cell by ditching the silicon all together.
The prototype photovoltaic device, created by researchers from the Group of Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices (DFO) at Spain's Universitat Jaume I in Castelló and Oxford University, uses a combination of titanium oxide and graphene as a charge collector and perovskite as a sunlight absorber.
As well as the impressive solar efficiency, the team says the device is manufactured at low temperatures, with the several layers that go into making it being processed at under 150° C (302° F) using a solution-based deposition technique. This not only means lower potential production costs, but also makes it possible for the technology to be used on flexible plastics.
The team's paper is published in the journal Nano Letters.
Source: Asociación RUVID (Spanish)
But yes, burning coal must stop.
Bill McKibben's "Do the Math" campaign shows that another 565 gigatons of carbon emissions take us to a CO2 level that equates a still manageable (if unpleasant) temperature rise by 2 degrees C. Unfortunately, industry has already identified reserves of 2,795 gigatons of carbon for exploration.
In other words, until we stop massive carbon emission we are quite literally cooked.