Modulating Exciton Dynamics in Composite Nanocrystals for Excitonic Solar Cells

Year: 2015

Authors: Concina I., Manzoni C., Grancini G., Celikin M., Soudi A., Rosei F., Zavelani-Rossi M., Cerullo G., Vomiero A.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Brescia, Dipartimento Ingn Informaz, I-25133 Brescia, Italy; Politecn Milan, IFN CNR, I-20133 Milan, Italy; Ist Italiano Tecnol, Ctr Nano Sci & Technol Polimi, I-20133 Milan, Italy; INRS Ctr Energy, Mat & Telecommun, Varennes, PQ J3X 1S2, Canada; Politecn Milan, Dipartimento Fis, IFN CNR, I-20133 Milan, Italy; CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, SENSOR Lab, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Lulea Univ Technol, S-97198 Lulea, Sweden.

Abstract: Quantum dots (QDs) represent one of the most promising materials for third-generation solar cells due to their potential to boost the photoconversion efficiency beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. Composite nanocrystals can challenge the current scenario by combining broad spectral response and tailored energy levels to favor charge extraction and reduce energy and charge recombination. We synthesized PbS/CdS QDs with different compositions at the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles assembled in a mesoporous film. The ultrafast photoinduced dynamics and the charge injection processes were investigated by pump-probe spectroscopy. We demonstrated good injection of photogenerated electrons from QDs to TiO2 in the PbS/CdS blend and used the QIN to fabricate solar cells. The fine-tuning of chemical composition and size of lead and cadmium chalcogenide QDs led to highly efficient PV devices (3% maximum photoconversion efficiency). This combined study paves the way to the full exploitation of QDs in next-generation photovoltaic (PV) devices.

Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS

Volume: 6 (13)      Pages from: 2489  to: 2495

More Information: A.V. is thankful to the European Union for partial salary support under contract No299490, MC-IOF. A.V. and I.C. acknowledge the European Union for partial funding under contract No295216, IRSES-WIROX. F.R. is grateful to NSERC for a EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowship and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a FW Bessel Award and Elsevier for a grant from Applied Surface Science. G.C. acknowledges support by the European Research Council Advanced Grant STRATUS (ERC-2011-AdG No. 291198). I.C. thanks the National Research Council under the Project Tecnologie e Materiali per l’utilizzo efficiente dell’energia solare (Regione Lombardia). C.M. acknowledges support by MIUR FIRB grant no. RBFR12SW0J. M.Z.-R. acknowledges financial support from Fondazione Cariplo through the project NANOCRYSLAS (grant No. 2012-0824). This work was performed in the context of the European COST Action MP1302 Nanospectroscopy. F.R. acknowledges the FQRNT for funding through team projects, the Canada Research Chairs program for partial salary support and funding from MDEIE for an international collaboration grant in collaboration with the European Network WIROX.
KeyWords: Photoinduced Electron-transfer; Shell Quantum Dots; Oxide-films; Thin-films; Deposition; Efficiency; Injection; Nanoparticles; Tio2; Size
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b00765

ImpactFactor: 8.539
Citations: 16
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