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Aqueous synthesis of CdSeTe-alloyed quantum dots, fabrication of CdSeTe, CdS and CdSe QDs-sensitized solar cells and optimization of the sensitizing, light scattering and passivating layers

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Abstract

In this research, quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) with multilayer photoelectrodes, i.e., the TiO2 nanocrystals/CdSeTe/CdS/CdSe/ZnS, were fabricated and investigated. The CdSeTe nanocrystals (NCs) were easily synthesized in aqueous solution and deposited on nanocrystalline TiO2 scaffold through drop-casting method. The other sensitizing/passivizing films were also prepared by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) and chemical bath deposition (CBD) methods. It was shown that QDSC with TiO2 nanocrystals/CdSeTe/CdS/ZnS photoanode demonstrated an energy conversion efficiency of 2.95%. This efficiency was enhanced about 30% through the addition and optimization of a CdSe QDs film in the photoelectrode. The CdSe-sensitizing film was effectively deposited in just 9 min and ZnS was applied as the normal passivating film. In the next stage, TiO2 hollow spheres (HSs) were prepared with desired dimension via a template scarifying approach to enhance the light travelling path inside the photoelectrode and increase the light harvesting efficiency. The mentioned point resulted in 12% enhancement compared to the HSs-free QDSC. The last improvement was finally performed by optimization of the ZnS passivating layer and showed a 30% improvement in PCE of the final QDSC in comparison with HSs-free CdSeTe/CdS/CdSe-sensitized solar cell. The pioneer cell was compared with the CdSe and HSs-free reference cell which demonstrated a considerable 68% enhancement in photovoltaic performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Arak University, Arak, 38156, Iran

    M. Marandi & S. Hossein Abadi

  2. Farzanegan High School, National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (Sampad-NODET), Arak, 3815899975, Iran

    N. Shahidi

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by NS, SHA, and MM. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr. MM and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Marandi, M., Shahidi, N. & Abadi, S.H. Aqueous synthesis of CdSeTe-alloyed quantum dots, fabrication of CdSeTe, CdS and CdSe QDs-sensitized solar cells and optimization of the sensitizing, light scattering and passivating layers. Appl. Phys. A 129, 517 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-023-06752-5

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