Recent development in colloidal quantum dots photovoltaics

Abstract

The increasing demand for sustainable and green energy supply spurred the surging research on high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaics. Colloidal quantum dot solar cell (CQDSC) is a new type of photovoltaic device using lead chalcogenide quantum dot film as absorber materials. It not only has a potential to break the 33% Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit for single junction solar cell, but also possesses low-temperature, high-throughput solution processing. Since its first report in 2005, CQDSCs experienced rapid progress achieving a certified 7% efficiency in 2012, an averaged 1% efficiency gain per year. In this paper, we reviewed the research progress reported in the last two years. We started with background introduction and motivation for CQDSC research. We then briefly introduced the evolution history of CQDSC development as well as multiple exciton generation effect. We further focused on the latest efforts in improving the light absorption and carrier collection efficiency, including the bulk-heterojunction structure, quantum funnel concept, band alignment optimization and quantum dot passivation. Afterwards, we discussed the tandem solar cell and device stability, and concluded this article with a perspective. Hopefully, this review paper covers the major achievement in this field in year 2011–2012 and provides readers with a concise and clear understanding of recent CQDSC development.

Keywords

lead sulfide / colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) / solar cells / multiple exciton generation (MEG) / atomic ligands

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Acknowledgements

J. Tang acknowledges the guidance and supervision of Prof. Edward H. Sargent during his Ph.D study. It is the experience and knowledge gained in Prof. Sargent’s group that makes this review possible. J. Tang also acknowledges Prof. Guozhen Shen at Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, for his help and support during the manuscript preparation.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg