Recent Developments in Metal Chalcogenides based Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Recent advance in nanotechnology leads to develop a variety of metal chalcogenide quantum dots (QDs) such as binary metal chalcogenides QDs and alloyed QDs. The average diameter of QDs lies in the range of 2 to 10 nm that contains almost 10 to 1000 atoms. Due to the quantum confinement effect, size-dependent photoemission characteristics, photo-optical and photovoltaic properties, QDs have a wide variety of applications such as light-emitting diodes, medicines, quantum computers and energy devices. In vital quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs), QDs play an eminent role in improving photoconversion efficiency (PCE). This review article focuses on the influence of QDs on the photovoltaic performance of QDSC, and its working principle, photovoltaic parameters of QDSC, types of metal chalcogenide QDs, synthesis methods of metal chalcogenide QDs, optoelectronic properties of metal chalcogenide based QDs, efficient deposition method of metal chalcogenide QDs and their photovoltaic performances. We finally made conclusions and outlook to furthur improve the PCE of QDSCs.