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SnS quantum dots with different sizes in active layer for enhancing the performance of perovskite solar cells

  • T.C. : Solar Energy Materials and Applications
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Abstract

Because of the special low-dimensional physical properties of quantum dots (QDs) and the excellent optoelectronic properties of perovskite, the combination of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and QDs may largely be one of the breakthroughs in device performance. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of the size of QDs on device performance except for bandgap tuning. In this work, non-toxic SnS QDs of different sizes were prepared by varying the reaction temperature of the thermal injection method. Their optical bandgaps with sizes were investigated, and they were implanted into the active layers of the carbon-based PSCs without hole transport layer. The effects of implanting SnS QDs with different sizes on the perovskite film quality and PSCs performance were studied. The cells implanted with SnS QDs of the best size (average 6.9 nm) achieved a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 14.26%, reaching a 12.42% improvement. The improved performance was mainly attributed to the presence of SnS QDs, which provided more nucleation sites for the growth of perovskite grains, and contributed to better quality perovskite films (including higher crystallinity, increased grain numbers and fewer surface defects), thus improving the light utilization, accelerating carrier transfer and reducing carrier recombination in the active layers. The successful implantation of QDs with different sizes in this paper has facilitated the development of the combination of perovskite and QDs in mesoporous PSC.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11704293, 11974266), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant WUT (2020IB022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Xuanhui Luo, Zhiyuan He, Rangwei Meng, Chi Zhang, Mengwei Chen, Haifei Lu & Yingping Yang

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  1. Xuanhui Luo
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  2. Zhiyuan He
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Correspondence to Yingping Yang.

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Luo, X., He, Z., Meng, R. et al. SnS quantum dots with different sizes in active layer for enhancing the performance of perovskite solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 127, 317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04474-0

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