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Updated: May 31, 2026
Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Hybrid nanocrystal/polymer solar cells based on tetrapod-shaped CdSe(x)Te(1-x) nanocrystals
Yi Zhou1, Yunchao Li, Haizheng Zhong
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People's Republic of China. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
A series of ternary tetrapodal nanocrystals of CdSe(x)Te(1-x) with x = 0 (CdTe), 0.23, 0.53, 0.78, 1 (CdSe) were synthesized and used to fabricate hybrid nanocrystal/polymer solar cells. Herein, the nanocrystals acted as electron acceptors, and poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) was used as an electron donor. It was found that the open circuit voltage (V(oc)), short-circuit current (J(sc)) and power conversion efficiency (η) of the devices all increased with increasing Se content in the CdSe(x)Te(1-x) nanocrystals under identical experimental conditions. The solar cell based on the blend of tetrapodal CdSe nanocrystals and MEH-PPV (9:1 w/w) showed the highest power conversion efficiency of 1.13% under AM 1.5, 80 mW cm(-2), and the maximum incident photon to converted current efficiency (IPCE) of the device reached 47% at 510 nm. The influence of nanocrystal composition on the photovoltaic properties of the hybrid solar cells was explained by the difference of the band level positions between MEH-PPV and the nanocrystals.
