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1. Flexible Manufacturing of Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells via Spray-Casting Techniques

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC48320.2023.10359863  

   Li, Lulin; Qiu, Botong; Lin, Yida; Shimabukuro, Laura; Ozbolt, Alex; Yao, Keyi Kang; Farias, Stephen; Rosenthal, Samuel; Thon, Susanna M (June 2023, IEEE)

   Colloidal quantum dots are a promising candidate material for solar energy generation because of their band gap tunability and solution-based processing flexibility. However, conventional colloidal quantum dot solar cell fabrication techniques are still limited by their lack of scalability, environment conditions, and difficult installation scenarios. Here, we develop spray-casting manufacturing methods for fabricating thin film solar cells, discuss the trade-off between conductivity and transmittance in transparent contact materials, and demonstrate the feasibility of spray-casting colloidal quantum dot layers. This work on flexible manufacturing methods paves the way for installing solar energy devices in a variety of novel scenarios. 

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2. Role of the ZnO electron transport layer in PbS colloidal quantum dot solar cell yield

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D3NR06558H  

   Chiu, Arlene; Lu, Chengchangfeng; Kachman, Dana E; Rong, Eric; Chintapalli, Sreyas M; Lin, Yida; Khurgin, Daniel; Thon, Susanna M (May 2024, Nanoscale)

   This review highlights recent advancements in the zinc oxide electron transport layer for PbS colloidal quantum dot solar cells. 

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3. Improving the Performance and Yield of Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells Through Electron Transport Layer Optimization

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC48320.2023.10359662  

   Kachman, Dana; Chiu, Arlene; Gudi, Dhanvini; Lu, Chengchangfeng; Rong, Eric; Chintapalli, Sreyas; Lin, Yida; Khurgin, Daniel; Thon, Susanna M (June 2023, IEEE)

   Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising materials for photovoltaic applications due to their solution processibility and size-dependent band gap tunability. The electron transport layer (ETL) is an important component of PbS CQD solar cells, and the quality of the zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnO NP) ETL film significantly impacts both the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and fabrication yield of CQD solar cells. We report on multiple methods to improve the quality of ZnO NP ETL films and demonstrate increased PCE and device yield in standard CQD solar cells employing optimized ZnO NP films. We also discuss the application of these methods in an inverted CQD solar cell architecture. 

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4. New Chalcogenide-Based Hole Transport Materials for Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics

   Rong, Eric; Bambini, Christianna; Lin, Yida; Lu, Chengchangfeng; Thon, Susanna M. (January 2021, Conference record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Colloidal Quantum Dot (CQD) thin films are ad- vantageous for solar energy generation because of their low- cost and size-tunable, solution-processable nature. However, their efficiency in solar cells is limited in part by the performance of the hole transport layer (HTL). Through Solar Cell Capacitance Simulations and Transfer Matrix Method calculations, we show that significant photogeneration occurs in the standard HTL of ethanedithiol-passivated lead sulfide CQDs which is a problem due to the sub-optimal carrier mobility in this material. We report new HTLs composed of chalcogenide-based materials to address these issues, and demonstrate an absolute power conversion efficiency improvement of 1.35% in the best device. 

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5. Improving PbS Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cell Performance via Solution-Phase Engineering

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC48320.2023.10359532  

   Gudi, Dhanvini; Chiu, Arlene; Kachman, Dana; Rong, Eric; Kamal, Serene; Lan, Yucheng; Thon, Susanna M (June 2023, IEEE)

   Lead Sulfide (PbS) colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising materials for flexible and wearable photovoltaic devices and technologies due to their low cost, solution processibility and bandgap tunability with quantum dot size. However, PbS CQD solar cells have limitations on performance efficiency due to charge transport losses in the CQD layers and hole transport layer (HTL). This study pursues two promising techniques in parallel to address these challenges. Solution-phase annealing of the absorbing PbS-PbX2 (X = Br, I) layer can reduce charge transport losses by removing oleic acid and parasitic hydroxyl ligands. Additionally, optoelectronic simulations are used to show that HTL performance can be improved by the addition of a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) layer to the PbS CQD-based HTL. We use solution-phase exfoliation to produce and incorporate 2D WSe2 nanoflakes into the HTL. We report a power conversion efficiency (PCE) increase of up to 3.4% for the solution-phase-annealed devices and up to 1% for the 2D WSe2 HTL augmented devices. A combination of these two techniques should result in high-performing PbS CQD solar cells, paving the way for further advancements in flexible photovoltaics. 

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