Near-field thermophotovoltaic (NF-TPV) systems utilize nanoscale emitter–cell separations to exploit evanescent-mode coupling, achieving radiative heat transfer beyond the black-body limit (Bhatt et al. in Nat Commun 11:2545, 2020). Using plasmonic materials as emitters excites surface plasmon polaritons that enhance photon transmission and device efficiency (Koppens et al. in Nano Lett 11:3370–3377, 2011; Messina et al. in Phys Rev B Condens Matter Mater Phys 88:104307, 2013). However, graphene-based NF-TPV devices have remained theoretical due to the challenge of maintaining nanoscale gaps between the suspended emitter and the cell (Fiorino et al. in Nat Nanotechnol, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0172-5). Even for other plasmonic materials that have succeeded in experimental realizations have been limited to specialized setups requiring additional equipment (e.g., piezo actuators) to maintain the nanoscale emitter–cell gap (Fiorino et al. in Nat Nanotechnol, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0172-5; Song et al. in Nat Nanotechnol 10:253–258, 2015). Here, we experimentally demonstrate a graphene-assisted TPV device in which graphene is suspended aboveby a nano-gap. This gap is formed using a silica-nanosphere monolayer (n ≈ 1.1) as an interlayer, allowing integration of emitter and cell without external mechanical alignment.