Efficient eco-friendly inverted quantum dot sensitized solar cells
Abstract
Recent progress in quantum dot (QD) sensitized solar cells has demonstrated the possibility of low-cost and efficient photovoltaics. However, the standard device structure based on n-type materials often suffers from slow hole injection rate, which may lead to unbalanced charge transport. We have fabricated efficient p-type (inverted) QD sensitized cells, which combine the advantages of conventional QD cells with p-type dye sensitized configurations. Moreover, p-type QD sensitized cells can be used in highly promising tandem configurations with n-type ones. QDs without toxic Cd and Pb elements and with improved absorption and stability were successfully deposited onto mesoporous NiO electrode showing good coverage and penetration according to morphological analysis. Detailed photophysical charge transfer studies showed that high hole injection rates (108 s-1) observed in such systems are comparable with electron injection in conventional n-type QD assemblies. Inverted solar cells fabricated with various QDs demonstrate excellent power conversion efficiencies of up to 1.25%, which is 4 times higher than the best values for previous inverted QD sensitized cells. Attempts to passivate the surface of the QDs show that traditional methods of reduction of recombination in the QD sensitized cells are not applicable to the inverted architectures.
Citation
Park , J , Sajjad , M T , Jouneau , P-H , Ruseckas , A , Faure-Vincent , J , Samuel , I D W , Reiss , P & Aldakov , D 2016 , ' Efficient eco-friendly inverted quantum dot sensitized solar cells ' , Journal of Materials Chemistry A , vol. 4 , no. 3 , pp. 827-837 . https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ta06769c
Publication
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2050-7488Type
Journal article
Description
This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, project QuePhélec (ANR-13-BS10-0011-01). MTS and IDWS are thankful to ERC for financial support for exciton diffusion project, grant number 321305. AR and IDWS also acknowledge EPSRC for financial support (grant number EP/J009016). We also acknowledge funding from the Labex LANEF in Grenoble (ANR-10-LABX-51-01).Collections
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