Enhancement of the power conversion efficiency of polymer solar cells by incorporating PbSe quantum dots

By expanding the absorption into infrared region, we have successfully demonstrated an enhanced efficiency of polymer solar cells by incorporating lead selenide (PbSe) colloidal quantum dots into copolymers of [poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)] as active layer. The influence of inorganic ligands and the post-annealing conditions on device performance has been investigated in detail. After optimization of these parameters, a maximum power conversion efficiency of 3.31 % is obtained from solar cell indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(3,4-ethylendioxy thiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/P3HT:PCBM:PbSe/Al under AM 1.5 and it has been improved by 14.5 % as compared with the control device ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/Al.

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