Abstract
An epitaxial shell of cadmium sulphide is grown on lead sulphide quantum dots in order to reduce the concentration of surface defects. Thin solid films of these core/shell materials are found to have low carrier concentrations due to effective surface passivation which reduces the number of dangling bonds. In this paper PbS/CdS is used as a quasi-intrinsic layer in p-i-n photovoltaic devices where PbS acts as the p-layer and ZnO the n-layer. By studying different permutations of these layers and the degree of PbS p-type doping by annealing we optimise fill factor and open-circuit voltage.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kramer I. J.; Sargent E. H. Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics: A Path Forward. ACS Nano 2011, 5, 8506–8514.
Tang J.; Sargent E. H. Infrared Colloidal Quantum Dots for Photovoltaics: Fundamentals and Recent Progress. Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, 12–29.
Kramer I. J.; Sargent E. H. The Architecture of Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells: Materials to Devices. Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 863–882.
Ip A. H.; Thon S. M.; Hoogland S.; Voznyy O.; Zhitomirsky D.; Debnath R.; Levina L.; Rollny L. R.; Carey G. H.; Fischer A.; {etet al.} Hybrid Passivated Colloidal Quantum Dot Solids. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2012, 7, 577–582.
Lan X.; Masala S.; Sargent E. H. Charge-Extraction Strategies for Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 233–240.
Chuang C.-H. M.; Brown P. R.; Bulović V.; Bawendi M. G. Improved Performance and Stability in Quantum Dot Solar Cells through Band Alignment Engineering. Nat. Mater. 2014.
Guyot-Sionnest P. Electrical Transport in Colloidal Quantum Dot Films. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2012, 3, 1169–1175.
Moreels I.; Fritzinger B.; Martins J. C.; Hens Z. Surface Chemistry of Colloidal PbSe Nanocrystals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 15081–15086.
Turyanska L.; Elfurawi U.; Li M.; Fay M. W.; Thomas N. R.; Mann S.; Blokland J. H.; Christianen P. C. M.; Patanè A. Tailoring the Physical Properties of Thiol-Capped PbS Quantum Dots by Thermal Annealing. Nanotechnology 2009, 20, 315604.
Neo D. C. J.; Cheng C.; Stranks S. D.; Fairclough S. M.; Kim J. S.; Kirkland A. I.; Smith J. M.; Snaith H. J.; Assender H. E.; Watt A. A. R. Influence of Shell Thickness and Surface Passivation on PbS/CdS Core/Shell Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells. Chem. Mater. 2014, 140606160802003.
Hines M. A.; Scholes G. D. Colloidal PbS Nanocrystals with Size-Tunable Near-Infrared Emission: Observation of Post-Synthesis Self-Narrowing of the Particle Size Distribution. Adv. Mater. 2003, 15, 1844–1849.
Neo M. S.; Venkatram N.; Li G. S.; Chin W. S.; Ji W. Synthesis of PbS/CdS Core−Shell QDs and Their Nonlinear Optical Properties. J. Phys. Chem. C 2010, 114, 18037–18044.
Pacholski C.; Kornowski A.; Weller H. Self-Assembly of ZnO: From Nanodots to Nanorods. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. 2002, 41, 1188–1191.
Zhao H.; Chaker M.; Wu N.; Ma D. Towards Controlled Synthesis and Better Understanding of Highly Luminescent PbS/CdS Core/shell Quantum Dots. J. Mater. Chem. 2011, 21, 8898.
Choi M.-J.; Oh J.; Yoo J.-K.; Choi J.; Sim D. M.; Jung Y. S. Tailoring of the PbS/metal Interface in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells for Improvements of Performance and Air Stability. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 3052.
Cheng C.; Lee M. M.; Noel N. K.; Hughes G. M.; Ball J. M.; Assender H. E.; Snaith H. J.; Watt A. A. R. Polystyrene Templated Porous Titania Wells for Quantum Dot Heterojunction Solar Cells. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2014, 6, 14247–14252.
Kim G.-H.; Walker B.; Kim H.-B.; Kim J. Y.; Sargent E. H.; Park J.; Kim J. Y. Inverted Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells. Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 3321–3327.
Gao J.; Jeong S.; Lin F.; Erslev P. T.; Semonin O. E.; Luther J. M.; Beard M. C. Improvement in Carrier Transport Properties by Mild Thermal Annealing of PbS Quantum Dot Solar Cells. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2013, 102, 043506.
Ko D.-K.; Brown P. R.; Bawendi M. G.; Bulović V. P-I-N Heterojunction Solar Cells with a Colloidal Quantum-Dot Absorber Layer. Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 4845–4850.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge funding from EPSRC (Platform Grant EP/F048009/1). D.C.J.N would like to thank A*STAR for PhD overseas research scholarship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Neo, D.C.J., Cheng, C., Assender, H.E. et al. PbS/CdS Core/Shell Nanocrystals For Solution-Processed Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1748, 7–13 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.959
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.959