A silicon nanocrystal/polymer nanocomposite as a down-conversion layer in organic and hybrid solar cells†
V. Svrcek,T. Yamanari,D. Mariotti,S. Mitra,T. Velusamy,K. Matsubara
Nanoscale Pub Date : 06/09/2015 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/C5NR02703A
Abstract

Silicon nanocrystal (Si-nc) down-conversion is demonstrated to enhance organic and hybrid organic/inorganic bulk heterojunction solar cells based on PTB7:[70]PCBM bulk heterojunction devices. Surfactant free surface-engineered Si-ncs can be integrated into the device architecture to be optically active and provide a means of effective down-conversion of blue photons (high energy photons below ∼450 nm) into red photons (above ∼680 nm) leading to 24% enhancement of the photocurrent under concentrated sunlight. We also demonstrate that the down-conversion effect under 1-sun is enhanced in the case of hybrid solar cells where engineered Si-ncs are also included in the active layer.

Graphical abstract: A silicon nanocrystal/polymer nanocomposite as a down-conversion layer in organic and hybrid solar cells