Anisotropic cuinse2 nanocrystals: Synthesis, optical properties and their effect on photoelectric response of dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

CuInSe2 I-III-VI2 ternary is a semiconductor considered very good efficient solar energy conversion material. An organometallic pyrolysis method is used to prepare monodisperse CuInSe2 nanoparticles using a mixture of oleylamine, and trioctylphosphine, as capping materials. The particle shape changes to dot, rods or flowers occur via varying the reaction temperatures (160, 200, 220°C) respectively. The obtained particles have been characterized to determine the shape and size of CuInSe2 nanoparticles using HR-TEM and XRD. The optical and electronic properties of these particles have been investigated and discussed in detail. Then the different shapes of CuInSe2 nanoparticles (nanodots, nanorods, and nanoflowers) were introduced to the dye-sensitized solar cell to study their effect on the optical switching properties. It was found that the nanoflowers provide better photovoltaic performance than the other shapes; since it reduces the settling time to 50 milliseconds after it was more than 17 seconds before adding CuInSe2 nanoparticles to the cells.