There are two important interfaces in HSCs, i. e., the polymer/inorganic nanocrystal interface where the charge separation takes place and the active layer/electrode interface where the free charges are collected. Therefore, their properties are crucial to the device performance. Efficient interface modification could not only facilitate the charge transport but also retard the backward recombination […]

Compared to the bilayer devices, bulk heterojunction HSCs have much higher conversion efficiencies. However, they are still limited by the inefficient charge transport caused by the discontinuous percolation pathways as shown in Fig. 9.10a, b. Therefore, an ordered heterojunction which has direct charge transport pathways is generally regarded as an ideal structure for HSCs, as […]

An important achievement in the development of CdSe-based HSCs was reported by Huynh et al. in 2002 [9]. CdSe nanorods with aspect ratios ranging from 1 to 10 had been studied and the one with highest aspect ratio showed the most excellent charge transport property and gave the best performance with a milestone effi­ciency of […]

The charge separation and transport in the conjugated polymer/semiconductor nanocrystals composites were first studied by Greenham et al. in 1996 [8]. A HSC with ITO/MEH:PPV-CdSe/Al structure was fabricated, after incorporating 90 wt% of CdSe into the polymer matrix the device gave a 0.6 % PCE and a 12 % quantum efficiency at 514 nm, while […]

HSCs have been extensively studied for many years. Although the conjugated polymers could play a crucial role in determining the efficiencies of HSCs, much of the research interests have been paid to the development of the inorganic nano­crystals. Although some new polymers with robust light harvesting properties and photovoltaic performances have been developed for organic […]

The HSCs work in the same way as OSCs, where the conjugated polymers serve as light absorber and electron donor (D), the inorganic nanocrystals serve as electron acceptor (A). Figure 9.1 gives the schematic illustration of the energy level alignment and the photocurrent generation mechanism in HSCs. Upon illumina­tion, the photocurrent is generated via the […]

Qidong Tai and Feng Yan Abstract In this chapter, we aim to present an overview of the development of the polymer/inorganic hybrid solar cells. In the first section, we introduce the basic concepts of hybrid solar cells including the device architecture and operation mechanism. Then we summarize the recent progress in this area classified by […]

In conclusion, by incorporating Au NPs into all organic layers in the OSCs, the efficiency can be improved by 22 %. The improvement is attributed to the accu­mulated enhancements in device performance due to addition of NPs into indi­vidual layers. NPs doped into PEDOT:PSS mainly contributes to more efficient hole collection due to increased PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM […]