Influence of deposition strategies on CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells: a comparison between successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction and chemical bath deposition

Author(s): Ru Zhou ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Haihong Niu ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Qifeng Zhang ⁶ ^, ⁷ ^, ⁸ ^, ⁹ , Evan Uchaker ⁶ ^, ⁷ ^, ⁸ ^, ⁹ , Zhiqiang Guo ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Lei Wan ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Shiding Miao ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Jinzhang Xu ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Guozhong Cao ⁶ ^, ⁷ ^, ⁸ ^, ⁹

Publication date (Electronic): 2015

Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

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Abstract

Appreciable influences of deposition strategies on the assembly of QDs and the performance of the resultant QDSCs were highlighted.

Abstract

Deposition and synthesis strategies of quantum dots (QDs) exert appreciable influences on the photovoltaic properties of quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). In this paper, a systematic characterization of morphology, optical and electrochemical properties has been carried out to correlate the assembling of QDs with the performance of the resultant QDSCs. CdSe sensitized TiO ₂ solar cells were investigated focusing on the influences of two commonly used in situ QD deposition methods, i.e., successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) and chemical bath deposition (CBD). By applying a pre-assembled CdS seed layer prior to CdSe deposition, a power conversion efficiency up to 4.85% has been achieved for CdS/CBD-CdSe cells, which is appreciably higher than 3.89% for the CdS/SILAR-CdSe cell. TEM images revealed that CdS seeded SILAR is only capable of less than full coverage, in contrast, the CdS seeded CBD technique secures full conformal coverage of QDs on TiO ₂. The full conformal coverage of QDs offers two benefits, (1) high loading of QDs for efficient photon capturing, contributing to the increase of photocurrent, and (2) suppression of interfacial charge recombination, resulting in high open-circuit voltage and a large fill factor. Our success in achieving the perfect coverage of QDs based on CdS seeded CBD highlights strong implications for the performance optimization of QDSCs.

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Dye-sensitized solar cells with 13% efficiency achieved through the molecular engineering of porphyrin sensitizers.

Simon Mathew, Aswani Yella, Peng Gao … (2014)

Dye-sensitized solar cells have gained widespread attention in recent years because of their low production costs, ease of fabrication and tunable optical properties, such as colour and transparency. Here, we report a molecularly engineered porphyrin dye, coded SM315, which features the prototypical structure of a donor-π-bridge-acceptor and both maximizes electrolyte compatibility and improves light-harvesting properties. Linear-response, time-dependent density functional theory was used to investigate the perturbations in the electronic structure that lead to improved light harvesting. Using SM315 with the cobalt(II/III) redox shuttle resulted in dye-sensitized solar cells that exhibit a high open-circuit voltage VOC of 0.91 V, short-circuit current density JSC of 18.1 mA cm(-2), fill factor of 0.78 and a power conversion efficiency of 13%.

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Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic analysis of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Qing Wang, Jacques-E. Moser, Michael Grätzel (2005)

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been performed to investigate electronic and ionic processes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC). A theoretical model has been elaborated, to interpret the frequency response of the device. The high-frequency feature is attributed to the charge transfer at the counter electrode while the response in the intermediate-frequency region is associated with the electron transport in the mesoscopic TiO2 film and the back reaction at the TiO2/electrolyte interface. The low-frequency region reflects the diffusion in the electrolyte. Using an appropriate equivalent circuit, the electron transport rate and electron lifetime in the mesoscopic film have been derived, which agree with the values derived from transient photocurrent and photovoltage measurements. The EIS measurements show that DSC performance variations under prolonged thermal aging result mainly from the decrease in the lifetime of the conduction band electron in the TiO2 film.

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Quantum dot solar cells. harvesting light energy with CdSe nanocrystals molecularly linked to mesoscopic TiO2 films.

István Robel, Vaidyanathan Subramanian, Masaru Kuno … (2006)

By using bifunctional surface modifiers (SH-R-COOH), CdSe quantum dots (QDs) have been assembled onto mesoscopic TiO(2) films. Upon visible light excitation, CdSe QDs inject electrons into TiO(2) nanocrystallites. Femtosecond transient absorption as well as emission quenching experiments confirm the injection from the excited state of CdSe QDs into TiO(2) nanoparticles. Electron transfer from the thermally relaxed s-state occurs over a wide range of rate constant values between 7.3 x 10(9) and 1.95 x 10(11) s(-1). The injected charge carriers in a CdSe-modified TiO(2) film can be collected at a conducting electrode to generate a photocurrent. The TiO(2)-CdSe composite, when employed as a photoanode in a photoelectrochemical cell, exhibits a photon-to-charge carrier generation efficiency of 12%. Significant loss of electrons occurs due to scattering as well as charge recombination at TiO(2)/CdSe interfaces and internal TiO(2) grain boundaries.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): JMCAET

Title: Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Abbreviated Title: J. Mater. Chem. A

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

ISSN (Print): 2050-7488

ISSN (Electronic): 2050-7496

Publication date Created: 2015

Publication date (Electronic): 2015

Volume: 3

Issue: 23

Pages: 12539-12549

Affiliations

[1 ]School of Electrical Engineering and Automation

[2 ]Hefei University of Technology

[3 ]Anhui Province

[4 ]Hefei

[5 ]P. R. China

[6 ]Department of Materials Science and Engineering

[7 ]University of Washington

[8 ]Seattle

[9 ]USA

Article

DOI: 10.1039/C5TA01461A

SO-VID: 90c67aaa-2a8f-4235-a2aa-8582d9f2c7ac

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