Manchester Materials Science Centre, School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2012 Mar 1;369(1):1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2011.12.016. Epub 2011 Dec 13.
Hybrid polymer/nanoparticle solar cells have a light harvesting layer composed of semiconducting inorganic nanoparticles and a semiconducting conjugated polymer. They have potential to give high power conversion efficiencies (PCE). However, the PCE values reported for these solar cells are not currently as high as anticipated. This article reviews the main methods currently used for preparing hybrid polymer/nanoparticle solar cells from the colloid perspective. PCE data for the period of 2005-2011 are presented for hybrid polymer/nanoparticle solar cells and compared to those from polymer/fullerene cells. The key reasons for the relatively low PCE values for hybrid polymer/nanoparticle solar cells are uncontrolled aggregation and residual insulating ligands at the nanoparticle surface. Two hybrid polymer/nanoparticle systems studied at Manchester are considered in which the onset of aggregation and its affect on composite film morphology were studied from the colloidal perspective. It is concluded that step-change approaches are required to increase the PCEs of hybrid polymer/nanoparticle solar cells and move them toward the 10% value required for widespread commercialisation. A range of nanoparticles that have potential for application in possible longer term terawatt solar energy production are discussed.
杂化聚合物/纳米粒子太阳能电池的光捕获层由半导体无机纳米粒子和半导体共轭聚合物组成。它们有潜力提供高的功率转换效率 (PCE)。然而，目前这些太阳能电池的 PCE 值并不像预期的那样高。本文从胶体的角度综述了目前用于制备杂化聚合物/纳米粒子太阳能电池的主要方法。给出了 2005-2011 年杂化聚合物/纳米粒子太阳能电池的 PCE 数据，并与聚合物/富勒烯电池进行了比较。杂化聚合物/纳米粒子太阳能电池的相对较低的 PCE 值的主要原因是纳米粒子表面的不可控聚集和残留的绝缘配体。从胶体的角度研究了曼彻斯特大学研究的两种杂化聚合物/纳米粒子体系，研究了聚集的起始及其对复合薄膜形貌的影响。结论是，需要采取重大的方法来提高杂化聚合物/纳米粒子太阳能电池的 PCE，并将其提高到广泛商业化所需的 10%。讨论了一系列可能在未来更长时间内用于大规模太阳能发电的潜在纳米粒子。
