Silicon (Si) photovoltaic devices present possible avenues for overcoming global energy and environmental challenges. The high reflection and surface recombination losses caused by the Si interface and its nanofabrication process are the main hurdles for pursuing a high energy conversion efficiency. However, recent advances have demonstrated great success in improving device performance via proper Si interface modification with the optical and electrical features of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Firmly integrating large-area 2D materials with 3D Si nanostructures with no gap in between, which is essential for optimizing device performance, has rarely been achieved by any technique due to the complex 3D morphology of the nanostructures. Here we propose the concept of a 3D conformal coating of graphene metamaterials, in which the 2D graphene layers perfectly adapt to the 3D Si curvatures, leading to a universal 20% optical reflection decrease and a 60% surface passivation improvement. In a further application of this metamaterial 3D conformal coating methodology to standard Si solar cells, an overall 23% enhancement of the solar energy conversion efficiency is achieved. The 3D conformal coating strategy could be readily extended to various optoelectronic and semiconductor device systems with peculiar performance, offering a pathway for highly efficient energy-harvesting and storage solutions.
Keywords: 3D nanostructure; Si solar cell; conformal coating; energy conversion efficiency; graphene metamaterial.