Panchromatic Photon-Harvesting by Hole-Conducting Materials in Inorganic–Organic Heterojunction Sensitized-Solar Cell through the Formation of Nanostructured Electron Channels

Abstract

Additional photon-harvesting by hole transporting materials in Sb(2)S(3)-sensitized solar cell is demonstrated through the formation of electron channels in the hole transporter such as P3HT (poly(3-hexylthiophene)) and PCPDTBT(poly(2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b']dithiophene)-alt-4,7(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)) that can act as both a hole conductor and light absorber. As a result, the short-circuit current density is improved with an increment in overall efficiency. These findings provide new insights into use of light-absorbing conjugated polymers as a hole conductor in the inorganic-organic heterojunction sensitized solar cells.

Effect of Organic and Inorganic Passivation in Quantum-Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…9 Currently, the maximum efficiency reported for CdS/CdSe light-absorbing material, the most extended semiconductors analyzed in QDSCs, is ∼5.4%, 10,11 and up to 6.3% has been obtained with Sb 2 S 3 . 12 Very recently we have reported an efficiency of 4.2% for PbS/CdS/ZnS based devices (unpublished results). Nevertheless, recent reports of solar cell efficiencies exceeding 10% for all solid nanostructured devices using lead halide perovskite have boosted the interest in semiconductor nanostructured light harvesters.…”

Super Sensitization: Grand Charge (Hole/Electron) Separation in ATC Dye Sensitized CdSe, CdSe/ZnS Type‐I, and CdSe/CdTe Type‐II Core–Shell Quantum Dots

“…[11b, c] By introducing inorganic-organic heterojunctions [12] and hybrid passivation, [13] the efficiency has been increased up to around 7 %, which is still much lower than that of conventional dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). [1] This clearly suggests that in most of the cases the majority of excitons recombine before it dissociates in QDSC.…”

Anatase TiO2 hierarchical structures composed of ultra-thin nano-sheets exposing high percentage {001} facets and their application in quantum-dot sensitized solar cells

“…To achieve high photovoltaic performance, various quantum dots (QDs) have been employed as sensitizers, such as PbS [8,9], PbSe [10], CdS [11,12], CdSe [13][14][15] and CdTe [16]. Most recently, low toxic QDs such Sb 2 S 3 [17], Ag 2 S [18], CuInS 2 [19,20] etc. were also used as green sensitizer to prevent the potential negative environmental impact.…”