Crafting semiconductor organic-inorganic nanocomposites via placing conjugated polymers in intimate contact with nanocrystals for hybrid solar cells

Lei Zhao, Zhiqun Lin

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

127 Scopus citations

Abstract

Semiconductor organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells incorporating conjugated polymers (CPs) and nanocrystals (NCs) offer the potential to deliver efficient energy conversion with low-cost fabrication. The CP-based photovoltaic devices are complimented by an extensive set of advantageous characteristics from CPs and NCs, such as lightweight, flexibility, and solution-processability of CPs, combined with high electron mobility and size-dependent optical properties of NCs. Recent research has witnessed rapid advances in an emerging field of directly tethering CPs on the NC surface to yield an intimately contacted CP-NC nanocomposite possessing a well-defined interface that markedly promotes the dispersion of NCs within the CP matrix, facilitates the photoinduced charge transfer between these two semiconductor components, and provides an effective platform for studying the interfacial charge separation and transport. In this Review, we aim to highlight the recent developments in CP-NC nanocomposite materials, critically examine the viable preparative strategies geared to craft intimate CP-NC nanocomposites and their photovoltaic performance in hybrid solar cells, and finally provide an outlook for future directions of this extraordinarily rich field. Intimately linked semiconductor conjugated polymer-nanocrystal (CP-NC) nanocomposites have received great attention as they possess a well-defined interface that markedly promotes the NC dispersion and facilitates the photoinduced charge transfer for use low-cost, high-efficiency hybrid solar cells. Several viable synthetic strategies have been exploited to craft a large number of such organic-inorganic nanocomposites composed of intimately contacted CPs and inorganic NCs of different types and dimensions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4353-4368
Number of pages16
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume24
Issue number32
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Aug 2012

Keywords

  • charge transfer
  • conjugated polymers
  • hybrid solar cells
  • nanocrystals
  • organic-inorganic nanocomposites

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