Near-infrared photoactive Ag-Zn-Ga-S-Se quantum dots for high-performance quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

• Roopakala Kottayi,
• Ilangovan Veerappan and
• Ramadasse Sittaramane

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1337–1344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.110

• performance studies. The fabricated QDSC have superior electrochemical activity with a photoconversion efficiency of 4.91%. Keywords: alloyed QDs; photoconversion efficiency; photovoltaic performance; quantum dots; Introduction Human life depends on various forms of energy. Approximately 13 terawatts of

• nanocrystals. The X-ray diffraction pattern confirms the hexagonal structure. Due to the near-infrared light absorption capability, the synthesized QDs were used as the sensitizer to fabricate QDSCs. The fabricated QDSCs were characterized by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and photovoltaic

Influence of thickness and morphology of MoS₂ on the performance of counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

• Lam Thuy Thi Mai,
• Hai Viet Le,
• Ngan Kim Thi Nguyen,
• Van La Tran Pham,
• Thu Anh Thi Nguyen,
• Nguyen Thanh Le Huynh and
• Hoang Thai Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 528–537, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.44

• conventional Pt/FTO CE (15.3 mA·cm−2). This work reports for the first time the possibility to obtain a honeycomb-like MoS2 thin film morphology by the CV method and investigates the effect of film structure on the electrocatalytic activity and photovoltaic performance of CEs for DSSC application. Keywords

• the effect of MoS2 morphology and thickness on the performance of the DSSCs, the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs using different MoS2 CEs was investigated under illumination. The J–V curves and the corresponding photovoltaic parameters of DSSCs are given in Figure 7 and Table 2, respectively. The

• DSSC using MoS2-1.25/FTO CE displayed an excellent photovoltaic performance compared to that with a Pt/FTO a CE. In particular, the obtained value of 16.3 mA·cm−2 for the short-circuit photocurrent (Jsc) was found to be higher than that of Pt/FTO CE (15.3 mA·cm−2). This is attributed to the high number

Polyvinylpyrrolidone as additive for perovskite solar cells with water and isopropanol as solvents

• Chen Du,
• Shuo Wang,
• Xu Miao,
• Wenhai Sun,
• Yu Zhu,
• Chengyan Wang and
• Ruixin Ma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2374–2382, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.228

• whole process was carried out under ambient conditions. Thus, our preparation method involves less toxic substances and is more environmentally friendly. Compared with previous preparation methods using aqueous lead nitrate solution as a precursor, our method can improve the photovoltaic performance of

• SUPRA55. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were collected with a SmartLab from Rigaku at 40 kV and 150 mA by using Cu Kα radiation (λ = 0.15405 nm). The photovoltaic performance of the PSCs was recorded using a Keithley 4200 source meter under one-sun AM 1.5G (100 mW·cm−2) illumination with a solar light

• impurity peaks [32]. Figure 4 shows the photovoltaic performance of the perovskite solar cells prepared with different amounts of PVP additive. The measured parameters are listed in Table 1. The open-circuit voltage (Voc) is shown to be affected massively, not only by the relative position of the quasi

Direct AFM-based nanoscale mapping and tomography of open-circuit voltages for photovoltaics

• Katherine Atamanuk,
• Justin Luria and
• Bryan D. Huey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1802–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.171

• and ensemble photovoltaic performance. Furthermore, direct open-circuit voltage mapping is compatible with tomographic AFM, which additionally leverages gradual nanoscale milling by the AFM probe essentially for serial sectioning. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional results for CdTe solar cells

• overlain images of Figure 2a–c, this reveals even more spatially localized variations in photovoltaic performance. As with every study based on scanning probes, it is important to consider any influence of topography on the results. The as-provided surface of the essentially commercial grade

• profile, the RMS roughness is thus improved up to two orders of magnitude. Notably, there are few correlations between this morphology and the photovoltaic performance. Figure 3 displays secondary scanning electron microscopy images of the as-provided thin film (Figure 3a, outer regions) and the surface

Performance of natural-dye-sensitized solar cells by ZnO nanorod and nanowall enhanced photoelectrodes

• Saif Saadaoui,
• Mohamed Aziz Ben Youssef,
• Moufida Ben Karoui,
• Rached Gharbi,
• Emanuele Smecca,
• Vincenzina Strano,
• Salvo Mirabella,
• Alessandra Alberti and
• Rosaria A. Puglisi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 287–295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.31

• conductive layers compared to N2 or O2, which was confirmed in the photovoltaic parameters of the final cells. We also highlight the fact that the use of a TiO2 blocking layer in the structure ZnO NW/TiO2/dye increases the photovoltaic performance of the realized DSSC by enhancing the morphological and

Performance of colloidal CdS sensitized solar cells with ZnO nanorods/nanoparticles

• Anurag Roy,
• Partha Pratim Das,
• Mukta Tathavadekar,
• Sumita Das and
• Parukuttyamma Sujatha Devi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 210–221, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.23

• agglomeration forms more interparticle gaps. This leads to the higher possibility of electron recombination and entrapment resulting in poor photovoltaic performance for particles. On the contrary, the multioriented 1D ZnO nanorods promote better light harvesting and faster electron injection, resulting in

• nanoparticles as a blocking layer for better CdS sensitizing and nanorods as a scattering layer for pronounced light harvesting [31][32][41][42]. A significant enhancement in the photovoltaic performance has been noticed for the ZnO-P+R based cell exhibiting an efficiency of 1.06% (Figure 7), which is

• nanoparticles in enhancing the photovoltaic performance of the colloidal CdS sensitized cells. The photovoltaic parameters have been collected in Table 1. A similar set of experiments were carried out following the traditional SILAR process for in situ formation of CdS over ZnO-based films. The thickness of the

The effect of dry shear aligning of nanotube thin films on the photovoltaic performance of carbon nanotube–silicon solar cells

• Benedikt W. Stolz,
• Daniel D. Tune and
• Benjamin S. Flavel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1486–1491, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.141

• photovoltaic performance of devices produced with and without dry shear aligning is compared. Keywords: absorbance; carbon nanotubes; current-voltage; dry shear aligning; order parameter; Introduction During the last decade or so, the potential benefits of using carbon nanotubes in solar cells has been

• ε0 have their usual meaning. The as-prepared films and those aligned by DSA were deposited on silicon substrates patterned with electrodes, and the photovoltaic performance was measured, with the results summarised in Figure 3 (and with the full J–V curves shown in Supporting Information File 1

• surface of the films using the newly developed technique of dry shear aligning. Whilst the DSA process produced films that were two orders of magnitude flatter and exhibited a 2D order parameter of up to 0.3, both of which have been previously observed to improve the photovoltaic performance of carbon

Optical modeling-assisted characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells using TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoanodes

• Jung-Ho Yun,
• Il Ku Kim,
• Yun Hau Ng,
• Lianzhou Wang and
• Rose Amal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.102

• DSSCs showed a 25 % higher charge collection efficiency than the TiO2 nanoparticle-based DSSCs. An outstanding optical effect induced by the well-ordered 1D-structure of the TNT array contributed to the improvement of the photovoltaic performance as well [5]. The light that penetrates into the open

• channels of the TNT array is scattered into deeper sites of the nanotubes, generating larger volume of excited electrons, thus enhancing the light harvesting efficiency in DSSCs [5][13]. Likewise, one of the strategies to improve the photovoltaic performance of the DSSCs is to increase the light harvest by

• TNT arrays, the optical modeling of TNT-based DSSCs has rarely been studied. Thus the experimental work of TNT-based DSSCs coupled with optical modeling will be a good platform to understand the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells. The optical modeling result will provide the important

Optimization of solution-processed oligothiophene:fullerene based organic solar cells by using solvent additives

• Gisela L. Schulz,
• Marta Urdanpilleta,
• Roland Fitzner,
• Eduard Brier,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Egon Reinold and
• Peter Bäuerle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 680–689, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.77

• vacuum-deposited DCV5T-Bu4 [18][19][20], which in combination with C60 gave an efficiency of 3.4% in planar heterojunctions [18] and 3.5% in bulk heterojunctions [21]. Herein, the synthesis and characterization of the DCV5T-Bu4 is described, as well as the photovoltaic performance of solution-processed

• )) [21]. In order to investigate the effect of a solvent additive on the photovoltaic performance, a series of devices was made by varying the amount of 1-chloronaphthalene (CN) in CB from 0.125 to 0.75% wt./vol. All results are shown in Table 2 and the J–V curve for the best performing device (0.375% CN

• the corresponding EQE spectrum (Figure 5b). However unfortunately, further attempts to improve the photovoltaic performance by using solvent additives in combination with PC71BM were unsuccessful (see Table S1 in Supporting Information File 1). The surface morphology of the D:A blend was investigated

Reduced electron recombination of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO₂ spheres consisting of ultrathin nanosheets with [001] facet exposed

• Hongxia Wang,
• Meinan Liu,
• Cheng Yan and
• John Bell

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 378–387, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.44

• structure consisting of ultrathin nanosheets with 100% of the [001] facet exposed were synthesized and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The photovoltaic performance of the DSCs with different concentrations of the hierarchically structured TiO2 spheres was evaluated. The kinetics of electron

Self-assembled monolayers and titanium dioxide: From surface patterning to potential applications

• Yaron Paz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 845–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.94