Ivan Narayanan, a professor of engineering at Rice University and leader of the team behind the research. “This could open up whole new uses of the technology—for example, the possibilities of incorporating energy harvesting into solar systems and the prospect of using photovoltaic cells on flexible plastic.”

If all goes as planned, the results could dramatically increase the life span of solar cells. The researchers found that the surface area of photovoltaic cells can be reduced when cells are stacked so it requires less cell volume to harvest a given amount of sunlight, thus improving cell efficiency. Further, they found that the thickness of photovoltaic cells can be increased to increase the solar cell’s conversion efficiency further.

The researchers have published their results in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Publication: G. Y. Narayanan and R. A. Pachauri, “Photovoltaic materials derived from heterogeneous graphene,” Nature Nanotechnology, doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.13

Reference: “Achieving High-Efficiency, Thinnest-Thickness Photovoltaic Materials by Heterogeneous Graphene.” Pachauri R., Narayanan G, Pashler S. (2014) Nature Nanotechnology, doi:10.1038/nnano.2014.10

DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2015.13