Hybrid solar cells utilization

D. Celik, M. Krueger, C. Veit, H. F. Schleiermacher, B. Zimmermann, S. Allard, I. Dumsch, U. Scherf, E Rauscher, P. Niyamakom, Performance Enhancement of CdSe Nanorod-Polymer Based Hybrid Solar Cells Utilizing a Novel Combination of Post-Synthetic Nanoparticle Surface Treatments. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 2012, 98,433-440. 

Snaith et al. utilized the so-called polymer brushes as hole conductors in hybrid solar cell devices. CdSe NCs have been attached to the brushes by infiltration to form a thin hybrid film [104]. Devices showed an improved hole conduction compared to spin-coated films of the same polymer [105]. However, device efficiencies remained quite low due to limited absorption of the solar light. 

The performance of NC-polymer hybrid solar cells increased constantly as well during the past years, but PCE values are still by a factor of 2 lower than that for pure OPV. Here, hybrid solar cell technologies benefit from the development of low-bandgap polymers from OPV, leading to an increased utilization of the incident solar radiation [81, 19]. However, the development of suitable low-bandgap polymers has been optimized for their utilization with fullerene-based acceptors such as PCPM and its derivatives, and the tailored design of polymers for specific... 

Unlike room temperature solar PV and photoelectrochemical electrolysis, the hybrid approach utilizes energy of the full solar spectrum, leading to substantially higher solar energy efficiencies. The IR radiation is energetically insufficient to drive conventional solar cells, and this solar radiation is normally discarded (by reflectance or as re radiated heat.) On the other hand, in the hybrid approach, as seen in Fig. 2... 

Several polymer/polyelectrolyte-nanocrystal hybrid devices have been fabricated seeking to exploit the electro and photoluminescent properties of such material [179-188]. Device fabrication in all these cases is by low-cost self-assembly based techniques. These devices utilize thin films of these hybrids obtained either by multilayer deposition or drop/spin casting methods. Thus, solar cells have been made from poly(2-hexylthiophene)-CdSe nanorod multilayers, lasers from drop cast films of CdSe-titania composites and an infrared emitter from multilayers... 

K. (2009) Efficient conjugated polymer-ZnSe and -PbSe nanocrystals hybrid photovoltaic cells through full solar spectrum utilization. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 93, 1208-1213. 

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