Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics: Current Progress and Path to Gigawatt Scale Enabled by Smart Manufacturing

Kirmani, Ahmad R.; Luther, Joseph M.; Abolhasani, Milad; Amassian, Aram

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01453

Cited by 79 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 248 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Owing to their unique luminescence properties, which include high quantum yield, narrow emission spectra and size-dependent colour tunability, colloidal quantum dot (QD) materials are attracting significant attention by the scientific community for utilization in future optoelectronic and energy harvesting devices. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Electroluminescent quantum dot light emitting devices (QDLEDs) are emerging as forefront players for next generation flat panel displays. With high electroluminescence (EL) efficiency and stability, in some cases reaching an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 30.9 % 8 and an LT95 of 11,000 hours from an initial luminance (L 0 ) of 1,000 cd m -2 , 9 the performance of these devices is quickly approaching that of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) used in commercial products.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant enhancement in quantum-dot light emitting device stability via a ZnO:polyethylenimine mixture in the electron transport layer

Chung

Davidson‐Hall

et al. 2021

Nanoscale Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant enhancement in quantum-dot light emitting device stability via a ZnO:polyethylenimine mixture in the electron transport layer

Chung

Davidson‐Hall

et al. 2021

Nanoscale Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Inspiring by the metal‐halide hybrid perovskites, halometallate, halide, and pseudo‐halide contained PbS QD inks were reported with significantly improved optical properties, surface passivation and carrier mobility. [ 166 ] In 2014, Sargent and coworkers employed SPLE‐processed QDs capped with iodide ligands for fabricating solar cells with a PCE of ≈6%, which is comparable with devices produced from LBL SSLE. [ 167 ] In 2017, the same group demonstrated SPLE PbS QD solar cells with PbX 2 /NH 4 Ac ligands achieving a certified record PCE of 11.28%.…”

Section: Engineering Of Quantum Dot Photovoltaic Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum Dots for Photovoltaics: A Tale of Two Materials

Duan

Guan

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

solar cells (PSCs), and colloidal quantum dots (QDs) solar cells, have been quickly developed. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Among these diverse PV materials, QDs possess unique nanostructural uniformity and highly tunable features, including quantum confinement effects and multiple exciton generation (MEG). [12][13][14][15][16][17] QD solar cells can be fabricated as semitransparent and flexible for promising applications, such as, wearable energy collectors and building-integrated photovoltaics. [18,19] QDs are defined as nanometer-sized semiconducting crystals, usually chemically synthesized with surface ligands. [20,21] When the size of a semiconducting crystal reduces to the molecular scale, its bulk properties alter simultaneously. [22,23] Owing to the quantum confinement effect, the absorption spectra and energy levels of QDs can be easily tuned by size variation. For example, the bandgap of cadmium telluride (CdTe) bulk material is around 1.48 eV, while the bandgap of the CdTe QD can be tuned from 2.06 to 2.32 eV by a slight size reduction from 2.47 to 2.10 nm. [24,25] The quantum confinement effect also allows better energy level and absorption matching for QD-based optoelectronic devices such as photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, and solar cells. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Additionally, QDs enable hot cattier extraction due to the MEG effect, where one absorbed photon with high energy may generate two or more excitons. [27,35,36] The unique capability of MEG in QD solar cells can potentially improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of single-junction devices and thus overcome the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) PCE limit. [37][38][39] In the past decades, increasing research attention has been paid to QD solar cells, and many materials have been exploited in this context. Although there have been some trials on leadfree materials, such as Indium arsenide (InAs), InP, and AgBiS 2 , their device performances are still poor, with PCE less than 6%. [40][41][42][43][44][45] Up to now, most of the high-performance devices were reported from lead-based QDs in two main categories: lead chalcogenides (PbX, X = S, Se) and lead halide perovskites (PVK). Figure 1a depicts the progress in PCE values and accumulated publication numbers of lead-based QD solar cells, shown as points and columns, respectively, since 2010. With recent progress in device structure design, band-alignment engineering, and optimized surface passivation, the PCE of QD solar cells has constantly increased, achieving a record of 16.6% to date. [46][47][48] Before 2016, QD solar cells were mainly composed of PbX (X = S, Se), and continuous efforts have recently culminated in a remarkable PCE of 13.8%. [53][54][55] PbX usually crystallizes in a cubic structure with S or Se atoms located at octahedral Quantum dot (QD) solar cells, benefiting from unique quantum confinement effects and multiple exciton generation, have attracted great research attention in the past decades. Before 2016, research efforts were mainly devoted to solar cells ...

show abstract

“…We first discuss the direct passivation of CQDs during the ligand exchange process. Since direct ligand exchange has been reviewed in detail before, [14,112,113] here we only discuss the passivation with organic ligands, halide ligands, and organicinorganic hybrid ligands for lead chalcogenide CQDs.…”

Section: Direct Passivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open‐Circuit Voltage Loss in Lead Chalcogenide Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Liu

Xian

et al. 2021

Advanced Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

absorption coefficients, which can be used to capture the far-infrared of solar radiation. [13,14] This outperforms silicon-based and other solution-based semiconductor materials. Additionally, lead chalcogenide CQDSCs have the potential to break through the Shockley-Quesser limit, via multiple exciton generation. [15][16][17][18] In the past decade, lead chalcogenide CQDSCs have attracted abundant attention and their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) have increased from ≈3% to ≈14%. [19][20][21] Moreover, the facile solution-processability (synthesis and ligand exchange) allows the production of solar cells by spraying, scraping, and roll-to-roll process, enabling great commercial potential. [22][23][24][25] Recently, some reports discussed the commercial viability of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs. [26,27] The results demonstrated that the cost of flexible lead chalcogenide CQDSCs can be as low as ≈0.94 $ per W, indicating the strong competitiveness of these solution-processability solar cells. To reach this low production cost, the PCEs of the CQDSCs are assumed to be 19% and the devices are assumed to be manufactured via a roll-toroll process. [27] Thus, it is still a great challenge for the commercialization of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs, and the low PCE is still the main obstacle for its market competitiveness.We summarize the main developments of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs (see Figure 1). In the early stage, the Schottky structure was used and it achieved the highest PCE of ≈5.2% in 2013. [28] But after 2014, there exist few reports of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs with the Schottky structure, due to the mismatch between optical absorption and charge extraction. [29] Subsequently, the n-p structure and depleted bulk heterojunction (DBH) structure have greatly improved the PCEs of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs. [30,31] N-p structure uses p-n junction to improve carrier extraction efficiency and reduce recombination, thus increasing the PCE of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs from ≈3% to above 9% in 2015. [19,32] Additionally, the absorption coefficient of lead chalcogenide CQDSCs reaches ≈10 6 cm −3 , which means that it is essential to use ≈1 μm solar absorber to fully absorb solar radiation. The DBH structure uses a bulk electron transport layer (ETL) to address the challenge of insufficient carrier diffusion length for the n-p structure, thus increasing the absorber thickness and greatly improving the short-circuit current (J sc ). [33][34][35] Through continued efforts, the PCE of the DBH structure has reached ≈10.8%. [36] To date, more research Lead chalcogenide colloidal quantum dot solar cells (CQDSCs) have received considerable attention due to their broad and tunable absorption and high stability. Presently, lead chalcogenide CQDSC has achieved a power conversion efficiency of ≈14%. However, the state-of-the-art lead chalcogenide CQDSC still has an open-circuit voltage (V oc ) loss of ≈0.45 V, which is significantly higher than those of c-Si and perovskite solar cells. Such high V oc loss severely limits the performance im...

show abstract

Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics: Current Progress and Path to Gigawatt Scale Enabled by Smart Manufacturing

Cited by 79 publications

References 248 publications

Significant enhancement in quantum-dot light emitting device stability via a ZnO:polyethylenimine mixture in the electron transport layer

Significant enhancement in quantum-dot light emitting device stability via a ZnO:polyethylenimine mixture in the electron transport layer

Quantum Dots for Photovoltaics: A Tale of Two Materials

Open‐Circuit Voltage Loss in Lead Chalcogenide Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About