CdSe quantum dots for solar cell devices

Abstract

CdSe quantum dots have been prepared with different sizes and exploited as inorganic dye to sensitize a wide bandgap TiO2 thin films for QDs solar cells. The synthesis is based on the pyrolysis of organometallic reagents by injection into a hot coordinating solvent. This provides temporally discrete nucleation and permits controlled growth of macroscopic quantities of nanocrystallites. XRD, HRTEM, UV-visible, and PL were used to characterize the synthesized quantum dots. The results showed CdSe quantum dots with sizes ranging from 3nm to 6nm which enabled the control of the optical properties and consequently the solar cell performance. Solar cell of 0.08% performance under solar irradiation with a light intensity of 100mW/cm2 has been obtained. CdSe/TiO2 solar cells without and with using mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as a linker between CdSe and TiO2 particles despite a Voc of 428mV, Jsc of 0.184 mAcm -2, FF of 0.57, and of 0.05% but with linker despite a Voc of 543mV, Jsc of 0.318 mAcm-2, FF of 0.48, and of 0.08%, respectively. Copyright © 2012 A. B. Kashyout et al.