Annealing Effect on Photovoltaic Performance of CdSe Quantum-Dots-Sensitized TiO2 Nanorod Solar Cells

Abstract EN

Large area rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays were grown on F:SnO2 (FTO) conductive glass using a hydrothermal method at low temperature.

CdSe quantum dots (QDs) were deposited onto single-crystalline TiO2 nanorod arrays by a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method to make a photoelectrode.

The solar cell was assembled using a CdSe-TiO2 nanostructure as the photoanode and polysulfide solution as the electrolyte.

The annealing effect on optical and photovoltaic properties of CdSe quantum-dots-sensitized TiO2 nanorod solar cells was studied systematically.

A significant change of the morphology and a regular red shift of band gap of CdSe nanoparticles were observed after annealing treatment.

At the same time, an improved photovoltaic performance was obtained for quantum-dots-sensitized solar cell using the annealed CdSe-TiO2 nanostructure electrode.

The power conversion efficiency improved from 0.59% to 1.45% as a consequence of the annealing effect.

This improvement can be explained by considering the changes in the morphology, the crystalline quality, and the optical properties caused by annealing treatment.