Inorganic interfaces, illumination

Fuel and Electricity Generation from Illumination of Inorganic Interfaces... 

In bulk (or dispersed) heterojunctions, nanocrystals are blended into the polymer to create a heterogeneous composite with a high interface surface area. In this hybrid solar cell concept, photo induced charge separation is favored between high electron affinity inorganic semiconductors and relatively low ionization potential polymer. The maximum power conversion efficiency has reached 2.8 % under AM 1.5 illumination condition by using the composite of tetrapods of CdSe nanocrystals and MDMO-PPV [4], while the PCE of the device based on the composite of CdTe nanorods and MEH-PPV is only 0.052 % in similar conditions [5]. 

The characteristics of Schottky barriers between P(Ac) and various low work function metals under white light illumination are summarized in Table 23-1 [961-971]. Conversion efficiencies are however low maximum efficiencies are only ca. 0.3 % to 1.1 %. Table 23-3 summarizes junction parameters for Schottky barriers and heterojunctions based on interfacing P(Ac) to inorganic semiconductors [961, 972-976, 982]. These inorganic semiconductor/P(Ac) cells were found to have higher conversion efficiencies, ca. 6.2%, as compared to Au/GaAs cells, ca. 4.6%. 

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