Effect of co-sensitization of InSb quantum dots on enhancing the photoconversion efficiency of CdS based quantum dot sensitized solar cells |
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Authors: | T. Archana K. Vijayakumar G. Subashini A. Nirmala Grace M. Arivanandhan R. Jayavel |
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Affiliation: | Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Anna University, Chennai-600025 Tamil Nadu India, +91 44 22359114 ; Centre for Nanotechnology Research, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore-632014 Tamil Nadu India |
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Abstract: | The effect of co-sensitization of CdS and InSb Quantum Dots (QDs) on the enhancement of efficiency of Quantum Dots Sensitized Solar Cells (QDSSCs) has been investigated. InSb is synthesized by a facile solvothermal method using indium metal particles and antimony trichloride as precursors. From TEM images the average particle size of InSb was found to be less than 25 nm. The I–V data showed photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.8% using InSb QDs as a sensitizer layer for QDSSC. However, co-sensitization of InSb QDs and CdS QDs on the TiO2 photoanode in QDSSCs showed an enhanced PCE of 4.94% compared to that of CdS sensitized solar cells (3.52%). The InSb QD layer broadens the light absorption range with reduced spectral overlap causing an improvement in light harvesting along with suppression of surface defects which reduced the recombination losses. As a result, co-sensitized TiO2/CdS/InSb QDSSC exhibits a greatly improved PCE of 4.94%, which is 40% higher than that of TiO2/CdS (3.52%) based QDSSCs due to improved light absorption with low recombination losses.InSb co-sensitized QDSSCs showed relatively higher efficiency (4.94%) than CdS based QDSSCs (3.52%) due to improved light absorption with low recombination losses. |
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