Solution-producible depleted heterojunction solar cells made of copper indium disulfide and zinc oxide nanocrystals

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Solar cells made of solution-processable semiconductor nanocrystals are a technology emerging from the field of organic photovoltaics and have made rapid progress in recent years. The most prospective concept employs a heterojunction between p-type absorber nanoparticles and an n-type transition metal oxide. In such a heterojunction, a depletion zone is formed at the interface, causing band bending which helps to separate photo-generated electron-hole pairs. With lead sulfide (PbS) and titanium dioxide (TiO2), over 9% power conversion efficiency have been reported in recent literature. However, the common approach has the serious disadvantage, that international research was focused on highly toxic Pb-based absorber material, so far. Therefore, the aim of the present project is to examine and develop nanocrystal solar cells with an alternative material system, namley with a heterojunction formed between a solution-producible absorber layer of copper indium disulfide (CuInS2) nanocrystals and a solution-processable layer of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals. Starting from preliminary work which demonstrated already the working principle, deep physical understanding of limiting elementary processes will be generated by systematic experiments, and the further potential of the CuInS2/ZnO system as an alternative to established nanoparticle solar cells with lead chalcogenides will be explored.