Carbon Nanotubes in Emerging Photovoltaics: Progress and Limitations

Amid a wide-ranging search for materials that can aid the optimization of solar photovoltaic performances, propelled by the ever increasing demand for clean and renewable energy in the 21st century society, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer an excellent avenue for progress. While multiple papers have reviewed and reported on their unique properties and individual applications, studies highlighting the role of CNTs in various solar cell architectures in a compiled form are relatively sporadic and harder to find. This article presents overviews of the development surrounding the incorporation of CNTs in different types of photovoltaic devices, namely organic photovoltaics, perovskite solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells, silicon-based photovoltaics, and Thin film solar cells, along with the important drawbacks that need to be addressed in order to ensure high efficiency, stable, and commercially viable photovoltaic cells. Based on the performance-cost tradeoff, future outlook regarding the prominence of CNT in the commercial solar cell market is also discussed.