Application of carbon dots in dye‐sensitized solar cells: A review

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) are a kind of zero-dimensional carbon-based nanoparticles with superb light-trapping ability, high optical absorption ability, and superior intrinsic catalytic activity. Due to these advantageous properties, they have received enthusiastic attention from researchers in the field of optical devices. The application of carbon dots in dye-sensitized solar cells has increased with steady steps recently, especially as a substitute for precious Ru-sensitizers and Pt counter electrodes. In this review, we classified the application of carbon dots in dye-sensitized solar cells in recent years and explained the mechanisms of improving the performance of carbon dots. The significant impact of surface functionalization of CDs on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells was discussed. Lastly, some challenges and application prospects of carbon dots in the dye-sensitized solar cell were proposed, which is meaningful for the further exploration and application of carbon dots as a new energy material.

Carbon Dots as New Generation Materials for Nanothermometer: Review

“…One of the newer class of carbon-based nanomaterials family is highly luminescent carbon dots (CDs), that have exceptional bright photoluminescence, photochemical stability, water-solubility, great biocompatibility, and non-toxicity [60][61][62]. CDs are zero-dimensional and sphere-shaped nanoparticles possessing diameters less than 10 nm [63,64].…”

A Perspective on Application of Carbon Quantum Dots in Luminescence Immunoassays

“…Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are a newly developed division of carbon-based nanomaterials (e.g., nanodiamond, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and graphene oxide) which are environmentally friendly, chemically stable, and reasonably conductive (Lim et al, 2015 ; Cayuela et al, 2016 ; Liu et al, 2016 ; Namdari et al, 2017 ; Molaei, 2020 ). These basic properties have attracted a wide range of researchers to employ CQDs in various applications including biomedical and biotechnological applications (Namdari et al, 2017 ; Iravani and Varma, 2020 ), dye-synthesized solar cells (Gao et al, 2020 ), light-emitting devices, (Yuan et al, 2018 ; He et al, 2020 ) imaging and bioimaging (Zhu et al, 2012 ; Jiang et al, 2015a ; Smith and Gambhir, 2017 ; Panwar et al, 2019 ; Liu Y. et al, 2020 ), electrochemical and electrochemiluminescence studies (Wang and Dai, 2015 ; Fiorani et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ; Chen et al, 2020 ; Kour et al, 2020 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ), and sensing (Li et al, 2019 ; Huang et al, 2020 ; Molaei, 2020 ; Tajik et al, 2020 ). More importantly, CQDs possess outstanding optical features, including a bright and tunable luminescence emission within a wide range of wavelengths (Sun et al, 2006 ; Wang et al, 2017 ).…”

Facile synthesis and characterisation of green luminescent carbon nanodots prepared from tender coconut water using the acid‐assisted ultrasonic route

“…Carbon is a fascinating material, which possesses remarkable properties when scaled to nanometre level from the bulk carbon. Having various ranges of dimensions, carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotube, nanodiamonds, graphene, fullerenes, fluorescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) have gained a lot of importance in these recent days owing to their unique physical, chemical, electrical, mechanical and optical properties [1–6]. Among them, CNDs are zero‐dimensional materials that possess size <10 nm and exceptional fluorescence properties [4–6].…”

“…Having various ranges of dimensions, carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotube, nanodiamonds, graphene, fullerenes, fluorescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) have gained a lot of importance in these recent days owing to their unique physical, chemical, electrical, mechanical and optical properties [1–6]. Among them, CNDs are zero‐dimensional materials that possess size <10 nm and exceptional fluorescence properties [4–6]. In comparison to the conventional quantum dots, CNDs are considered economical and suitable candidate with excellent optical property, water solubility and low toxicity [4–6].…”

“…Among them, CNDs are zero‐dimensional materials that possess size <10 nm and exceptional fluorescence properties [4–6]. In comparison to the conventional quantum dots, CNDs are considered economical and suitable candidate with excellent optical property, water solubility and low toxicity [4–6]. They find numerous applications in the field of drug delivery [7], energy storage [8], photocatalyst (resulting from their strong photoluminescence (PL) from visible to near‐infrared (IR) region) [9], optoelectronics (as the photo exited CNDs act as both electron donor and acceptor) [10], bio‐imaging [11] and photovoltaic cells [12].…”