Semiconductor nanoparticles, sintering

Sintering Metal and Semiconductor Nanoparticles into Continuous Polycrystalline Films... 

As can be seen, the heart of the device is the semiconducting mesoporous or nanocrystalline oxide, composed of a network of nanoparticles that have been sintered together to establish electronic conduction, which is characterized by the total depletion of the semiconductor due to the small size of the nanoparticles and porous structure [65]. The Fermi level in the dark is therefore near the bandgap center, allowing for the generation of high photovoltages upon illumination [71]. 

Ti02 is established as the most performing semiconductor metal oxide in DSCs, both in the form of the commonly employed sintered nanoparticles and nanotubes/ nanorods [147, 148] alternative metal oxides to Ti02, such as ZnO and Sn02, are also actively investigated [149-152]. 

One successful application of a solar cell using metal oxide as an electron acceptor is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In DSSCs, organic or metal complex dyes are usually chemically adsorbed on the surface of a wide band gap metal oxide semiconductor nanocrystalline electrode by an anchor group(s) (for example the carboxyl group). Nanocrystalline electrodes are made by sintering nanoparticles, so that a large surface area is obtained on the porous... 

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