Colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics

INOR 308

Nicholas, C. Strandwitz, nstrand@engineering.ucsb.edu, Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, Shannon W. Boettcher, sboettcher@chem.ucsb.edu, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9510, and Galen D. Stucky, Department of Chemistry & Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are a unique class of materials with excellent potential for solar energy harvesting. Advantages of QD materials, such as size-tunable bandgap, solution processability, and high absorption cross sections, are highly desirable for low-cost photovoltaic devices. Additionally, recent evidence of multiple exciton generation in these materials could lead to very high efficiencies via increases in device photocurrent. Here we describe recent work on harvesting photogenerated carriers in nanostructured composite metal-oxide-QD systems. The challenges of high QD loading and efficient electron transport in porous oxide systems, as well as engineering hole extraction by both electrochemical and solid state means, are addressed.
 

Nanoscience: Applications
7:00 PM-10:00 PM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster

Division of Inorganic Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006