Proceedings of nanoGe September Meeting 2015 (NFM15)
Publication date: 8th June 2015
Quantum dots (QDs) show a series of appealing properties such as high absorption coefficients, size dependence and easy tunability of their optical and electronic properties due to the quantum confinement effect. This makes them very attractive for use in different technological areas, including photovoltaic devices.1 On the other hand, most of the reported QD based solar cells are using toxic cadmium and lead chalcogenides, which limits their development to laboratory demonstrations. Ternary and quaternary nanocrystals can combine the classical advantages of QDs with non-toxicity and the possibility to fine-tune their properties due to the wider choice of compositions.2
In a typical QD sensitized solar cell the QDs are deposited onto a nanostructured electrode and upon light absorption, they inject electrons into the conduction band of this n-type material, while the hole is regenerated by the electrolyte. Inverted cells, in which a nanostructured p-type materials acts as the support for the QDs are by far less studied. It is of high importance to develop these systems as they open the way to tandem cells of improved solar cell characteristics. So far the performances of p-type cells lag far behind those of n-type ones mainly because of prevalent recombination processes competing with charge injection. Here ternary / quaternary CuInS2 and CuInSxSe2-x QDs are used as light absorbers whose electronic energy levels have been tuned in order to minimize recombination losses and to maximize hole injection.
We present the results of advanced electron microscopy morphological studies of the assemblies obtained after QD deposition on a mesoporous p-type NiO electrode. The hole transfer in the assemblies was investigated by means of time-resolved spectroscopy indicating a high injection rate. Power conversion efficiencies up to 1.25% have been achieved, which is by far the highest value reported for p-type QD sensitized solar cells. The influence of various QD compositions and surface treatments will also be discussed.
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