Colloidal self-assembly concepts for light management in photovoltaics

Abstract

Colloidal particles show interaction with electromagnetic radiation at optical frequencies. At the same time clever colloid design and functionalization concepts allow for versatile particle assembly providing monolayers of macroscopic dimensions. This has led to a significant interest in assembled colloidal structures for light harvesting in photovoltaic devices. In particular thin-film solar cells suffer from weak absorption of incoming photons. Consequently light management using assembled colloidal structures becomes vital for enhancing the efficiency of a given device. This review aims at giving an overview of recent developments in colloid synthesis, functionalization and assembly with a focus on light management structures in photovoltaics. We distinguish between optical effects related to the single particle properties as well as collective optical effects, which originate from the assembled structures.Colloidal templating approaches open yet another dimension for controlling the interaction with light. We focus in this respect on structured electrodes that have received much attention due to their dual functionality as light harvesting systems and conductive electrodes and highlight the impact of interparticle spacing for templating.

Nanoparticle Clusters: Assembly and Control Over Internal Order, Current Capabilities, and Future Potential

“…[139] In one notable exception, Park et al recently reported the use of Au NP NPCs for the enhancement of organic photovoltaic devices. [140] Their results are interesting, since incorporation of nanoparticles directly into the active layer of a bulk-heterojunction solar cell is difficult due to 3D phase separation between the donor and acceptor phases, a delicate process for which the presence of particles or clusters is usually detrimental.…”

“…[140] Their results are interesting, since incorporation of nanoparticles directly into the active layer of a bulk-heterojunction solar cell is difficult due to 3D phase separation between the donor and acceptor phases, a delicate process for which the presence of particles or clusters is usually detrimental. [139] The NPCs used were prepared in situ at the hole-blocking layer (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate) from silver nanoprisms by galvanic replacement with Au + , resulting in close-packed Au NPCs with considerable field enhancement. With such a structure, the photoconversion efficiency could be improved by a relative 14%.…”

Using Nanoparticles as a Bottom-up Approach to Increase Solar Cell Efficiency

“…bottom-up) to fabricate Mie scatterers for solar cells need to be explored. Although wet chemical techniques are used to fabricate Mie scattering structures (Araújo A. et al, 2017;Karg M. et al, 2015), more industrially compatible techniques are desirable. A recent work by (Giannakoudakis and Di Vece, 2017) shows that TiO 2 Mie scatterers can be produced with a gas aggregation cluster source and combined with a-Si thin films.…”

Improving optical absorption in a-Si thin films with TiO2 Mie scatterers

“…bottom up) to fabricate Mie scatterers for solar cells need to be explored. Although wet chemical techniques are used to fabricate Mie scattering structures [14,15], more industrial compatible techniques are desirable.…”