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State filling effects on photoluminescence and photovoltaic characteristic of aluminium-doped CdTe colloidal quantum dots stabilized in aqueous medium

Chemical Papers volume 75, pages 1883–1892 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

CdTe and aluminium (Al)-doped CdTe (Al:CdTe QDs) colloidal quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized through an aqueous route. CdTe and Al:CdTe QDs colloidal quantum dots of different size were obtained by collecting the samples at different refluxing time. The size of the synthesized QDs collected after 6 h of refluxing time was measured to 3.3 and 4.8 nm for Al:CdTe QDs and CdTe QDs, respectively. The size shrinkages of Al:CdTe QDs were due to chlorine ions from AlCl3 precursor, which controls the growth kinetics of QDs and stabilizes the QDs in the aqueous phase. The size shrinkages of Al:CdTe QDs result in an increase of bandgap from 2.13 to 2.3 eV and congruently blue-shifted absorbance and emission spectra were discerned. The state filling effect, gradual filling of energy state, observed clearly in photoluminescence spectra of Al:CdTe QDs for samples collected after 30 min of refluxing time. We also fabricated Gratzel-type QDs-sensitized solar cells by loading CdTe and Al:CdTe QDs on mesoporous TiO2 photoanode. Photovoltaic efficiency is marginally increased (13%) from 0.45 to 0.51% for Al-doped CdTe QDs as compared to CdTe QDs.

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Acknowledgements

The author VV, acknowledge to Government of India for the financial support through UGC-Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (F1­17.1/2015­16/RGNF­2015­17­SC­TAM­18304).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600025, India

    Vijayaraj Venkatachalam & Sasikala Ganapathy

  2. Chemistry Division, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology Chennai Campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600127, India

    Ilaiyaraja Perumal

  3. Department of Polymer Science, University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600025, India

    Santhanapanneer Devendrapandi

  4. Department of Physics, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, Tamil Nadu, 626126, India

    Arivarasan Ayyaswamy

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  1. Vijayaraj Venkatachalam
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  2. Sasikala Ganapathy
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Correspondence to Sasikala Ganapathy.

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Venkatachalam, V., Ganapathy, S., Perumal, I. et al. State filling effects on photoluminescence and photovoltaic characteristic of aluminium-doped CdTe colloidal quantum dots stabilized in aqueous medium. Chem. Pap. 75, 1883–1892 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-020-01406-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-020-01406-9

Keywords

  • Cadmium telluride
  • Quantum dots
  • State-filling effect
  • Aliovalent doping
  • Solar cell