Energy Relay from an Unconventional Yellow Dye to CdS/CdSe Quantum Dots for Enhanced Solar Cell Performance |
| |
| Authors: | Remya Narayanan Amrita Das Dr Melepurath Deepa Dr Avanish Kumar Srivastava |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Ordnance Factory Estate, Yedduaram‐502205, Andhra Pradesh (India);2. National Physical Laboratory, Krishnan road, New Delhi‐110012 (India) |
| |
| Abstract: | A new design for a quasi‐solid‐state Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) enabled solar cell with unattached Lucifer yellow (LY) dye molecules as donors and CdS/CdSe quantum dots (QDs) tethered to titania (TiO2) as acceptors is presented. The Forster radius is experimentally determined to be 5.29 nm. Sequential energy transfer from the LY dye to the QDs and electron transfer from the QDs to TiO2 is followed by fluorescence quenching and electron lifetime studies. Cells with a donor–acceptor architecture (TiO2/CdS/CdSe/ZnS‐LY/S2?‐multi‐walled carbon nanotubes) show a maximum incident photon‐to‐current conversion efficiency of 53 % at 530 nm. This is the highest efficiency among Ru‐dye free FRET‐enabled quantum dot solar cells (QDSCs), and is much higher than the donor or acceptor‐only cells. The FRET‐enhanced solar cell performance over the majority of the visible spectrum paves the way to harnessing the untapped potential of the LY dye as an energy relay fluorophore for the entire gamut of dye sensitized, organic, or hybrid solar cells. |
| |
| Keywords: | electron transfer energy transfer photoluminescence quantum dots solar cells |
|
|
