CuInS2/ZnS nanocrystals as sensitisers for NiO photocathodes

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CuInS2/ZnS nanocrystals as sensitisers for NiO photocathodes

Macdonald, TJ; Mange, YJ; Dewi, MR; Islam, HU; Parkin, IP; Skinner, WM; Nann, T; (2015) CuInS2/ZnS nanocrystals as sensitisers for NiO photocathodes. Journal of Materials Chemistry A , 3 (25) pp. 13324-13331. 10.1039/c5ta01821h. Green open access

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Abstract

Nickel oxide (NiO) is the most universally studied photocathode to date, however, its poor fill factor (FF) makes its efficiency much lower than its counterpart, n-type photoanodes. Its significance in photovoltaics is based on the potential to fabricate tandem photoelectrodes in order to enhance the overall efficiency of the existing devices. Furthermore, limited work on the sensitisation of NiO with semiconducting nanocrystals (NCs) exists. For the first time, we have fabricated NiO photocathodes sensitised with aqueous CuInS2/ZnS NCs. The NCs were chemically bound to the NiO films with the aid of carboxyl and thiol groups. This was achieved without modifying the bulk surface properties of NiO. Binding of the NCs was investigated using TEM, SEM, XPS, XANES, EXAFS modelling and ToF-SIMS. NiO films were assembled into CuInS2/ZnS NC sensitised photocathodes and their photovoltaic properties were compared to those of unsensitised and dye-sensitised NiO solar cells. We demonstrate that nontoxic NCs can be used to sensitise NiO photocathodes to achieve an (almost) all-inorganic system.

Type:	Article
Title:	CuInS2/ZnS nanocrystals as sensitisers for NiO photocathodes
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1039/c5ta01821h
Publisher version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c5ta01821h
Language:	English
Additional information:	This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.
Keywords:	Science & technology, physical sciences, technology, chemistry, physical, energy & fuels, materials science, multidisciplinary, chemistry, materials science, charge-transfer processes, solar-cells, quantum dots, collectorless flotation, zinc-sulfide, growth, xps, nanophotocathode, semiconductors, nanoparticles
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1478509