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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Photovoltaic devices employing ternary PbSxSe1-x nanocrystals
Wanli Ma1, Joseph M Luther, Haimei Zheng
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Abstract:
We report solar cells based on highly confined nanocrystals of the ternary compound PbS(x)Se(1-x). Crystalline, monodisperse alloyed nanocrystals are obtained using a one-pot, hot injection reaction. Rutherford back scattering and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy suggest that the S and Se anions are uniformly distributed in the alloy nanoparticles. Photovoltaic devices made using ternary nanoparticles are more efficient than either pure PbS or pure PbSe based nanocrystal devices.

