Abstract
Semiconductor sensitized solar cells (SSSCs) are promising candidates for the third generation of cost-effective photovoltaic solar cells and it is important to develop a group of robust, environment friendly and visible-light-responsive semiconductor sensitizers. In this paper, we first synthesized bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) quantum dots by employing facile successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) deposition technique, which we then used as a sensitizer for solar energy conversion. The preliminary optimised oxide SSSC showed an efficiency of 0.36%, nearly 2 orders of magnitude enhancement compared with bare TiO2, due to the narrow bandgap absorption of BiVO4 quantum dots and intimate contact with the oxide substrate. This result not only demonstrates a simple method to prepare BiVO4 quantum dots based solar cell, but also provides important insights into the low bandgap oxide SSSCs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Rühle S, Anderson AY, Barad HN, Kupfer B, Bouhadana Y, Rosh Hodesh E, Zaban A. All-oxide photovoltaics. J Phys Chem Lett, 2012, 3: 3755–3764
Jeon NJ, Lee HG, Kim YC, Seo J, Noh JH, Lee J, Seok SI. O-methoxy substituents in spiro-OMeTAD for efficient inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite solar cells. J Am Chem Soc, 2014, 136: 7837–7840
Pan Z, Mora-Seró I, Shen Q, Zhang H, Li Y, Zhao K, Wang J, Zhong X, Bisquert J. High-efficiency “green” quantum dot solar cells. J Am Chem Soc, 2014, 136: 9203–9210
Wang J, Mora-Seró I, Pan Z, Zhao K, Zhang H, Feng Y, Yang G, Zhong X, Bisquert J. Core/shell colloidal quantum dot exciplex states for the development of highly efficient quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells. J Am Chem Soc, 2013, 135: 15913–15922
Mittiga A, Salza E, Sarto F, Tucci M, Vasanthi R. Heterojunction solar cell with 2% efficiency based on a Cu2O substrate. App Phys Lett, 2006, 88: 163502
Yang SY, Martin LW, Byrnes SJ, Conry TE, Basu SR, Paran D, Reichertz L, Ihlefeld J, Adamo C, Melville A, Chu Y-H, Yang C-H, Musfeldt JL, Schlom DG, Ager JW, Ramesh R. Photovoltaic effects in BiFeO3. App Phys Lett, 2009, 95: 062909
Yu XC, Zhu J, Liu F, Wei JF, Hu LH, Dai SY. Metal chalcogenide complex-mediated fabrication of Cu2S film as counter electrode in quantum dot sensitized solar cells. Sci China Chem, 2013, 56: 977–981
Xu XQ, Xu G. Electrochemical impedance spectra of CdSe quantume dots sensitized nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cells. Sci China Chem, 2011, 54: 205–210
Sambur JB, Novet T, Parkinson BA. Multiple exciton collection in a sensitized photovoltaic system. Science, 2010, 330: 63–66
Tisdale WA, Williams KJ, Timp BA, Norris DJ, Aydil ES, Zhu XY. Hot-electron transfer from semiconductor nanocrystals. Science, 2010, 328: 1543–1547
Zaban A, Mićić OI, Gregg BA, Nozik AJ. Photosensitization of nanoporous TiO2 electrodes with InP quantum dots. Langmuir, 1998, 14: 3153–3156
Yu P, Zhu K, Norman AG, Ferrere S, Frank AJ, Nozik AJ. Nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cells sensitized with InAs quantum dots. J Phys Chem B, 2006, 110: 25451–25454
Zhang JB, Gao JB, Miller EM, Luther JM, Beard MC. Diffusion-controlled synthesis of pbs and pbse quantum dots with in situ halide passivation for quantum dot solar cells. ACS Nano, 2013, 8: 614–622
Rath AK, Bernechea M, Martinez L, Konstantatos G. Solution-processed heterojunction solar cells based on p-type PbS quantum dots and n-type Bi2S3 nanocrystals. Adv Mater, 2011, 23: 3712–3717
Walsh A, Yan Y, Huda MN, Al Jassim MM, Wei SH. Band edge electronic structure of BiVO4: elucidating the role of the Bi s and V d orbitals. Chem Mater, 2009, 21: 547–551
Sayama K, Nomura A, Arai T, Sugita T, Abe R, Yanagida M, Oi T, Iwasaki Y, Abe Y, Sugihara H. Photoelectrochemical decomposition of water into H2 and O2 on porous BiVO4 thin-film electrodes under visible light and significant effect of ag ion treatment. J Phys Chem B, 2006, 110: 11352–11360
Liu ZK, Yan F. The application of bismuth-based oxides in organic-inorganic hybrid photovoltaic devices. J Am Ceram Soc, 2012, 95: 1944–1948
Zhang JY, Luo WJ, Li W, Zhao X, Xue GG, Yu T, Zhang CF, Xiao M, Li ZS, Zou ZG. A dye-free photoelectrochemical solar cell based on BiVO4 with a long lifetime of photogenerated carriers. Electrochem Commun, 2012, 22: 49–52
Hu LH, Dai SY, Weng J, Xiao SF, Sui YF, Huang Y, Chen SH, Kong FT, Pan X, Liang LY. Microstructure design of nanoporous TiO2 photoelectrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell modules. J Phys Chem B, 2007, 111: 358–362
Kudo A, Omori K, Kato H. A novel aqueous process for preparation of crystal form-controlled and highly crystalline BiVO4 powder from layered vanadates at room temperature and its photocatalytic and photophysical properties. J Am Chem Soc, 1999, 121: 11459–11467
Tokunaga S, Kato H, Kudo A. Selective preparation of monoclinic and tetragonal BiVO4 with scheelite structure and their photocatalytic properties. Chem Mater, 2001, 13: 4624–4628
Lim AR, Choh SH, Jang MS. Prominent ferroelastic domain walls in BiVO4 crystal. J Phys: Condens Matter, 1995, 7: 7309–7323
Im JH, Lee CR, Lee JW, Park SW, Park NG. 6.5% efficient perovskite quantum-dot-sensitized solar cell. Nanoscale, 2011, 3: 4088–4093
Hong SJ, Lee S, Jang JS, Lee JS. Heterojunction BiVO4/WO3 electrodes for enhanced photoactivity of water oxidation. Energy Environ Sci, 2011, 4: 1781–1787
Long, Cai, Kisch H. Visible light induced photoelectrochemical properties of n-BiVO4 and n-BiVO4/p-Co3O4. J Phys Chem C, 2007, 112: 548–554
Berglund SP, Flaherty DW, Hahn NT, Bard AJ, Mullins CB. Photoelectrochemical oxidation of water using nanostructured BiVO4 films. J Phys Chem C, 2011, 115: 3794–3802
Greenwald S, Ruhle S, Shalom M, Yahav S, Zaban A. Unpredicted electron injection in CdS/CdSe quantum dot sensitized ZrO2 solar cells. Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2011, 13: 19302–19306
Marin AT, Muñoz-Rojas D, Iza DC, Gershon T, Musselman KP, MacManus-Driscoll JL. Novel atmospheric growth technique to improve both light absorption and charge collection in ZnO/Cu2O thin film solar cells. Adv Funct Mater, 2013, 23: 3413–3419
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Y., Zhu, J., Chu, H. et al. BiVO4 semiconductor sensitized solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 58, 1489–1493 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-015-5348-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-015-5348-3