Core–Shell CdS–Cu2S Nanorod Array Solar Cells

Wong, Andrew Barnabas; Brittman, Sarah; Yu, Yi; Dasgupta, Neil P.; Yang, Peidong

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01203

Title: Core–Shell CdS–Cu₂S Nanorod Array Solar Cells

Journal Article · Wed May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01203· OSTI ID:1579817

Wong, Andrew Barnabas ^[1]; Brittman, Sarah ^[1]; Yu, Yi ^[1]; Dasgupta, Neil P. ^[2]; Yang, Peidong ^[3]

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kavli Energy Nanosciences Inst., Berkeley, CA (United States)

As an earth-abundant p-type semiconductor, copper sulfide (Cu2S) is an attractive material for application in photovoltaic devices. However, it suffers from a minority carrier diffusion length that is less than the length required for complete light absorption. Core-shell nanowires and nanorods have the potential to alleviate this difficulty because they decouple the length scales of light absorption and charge collection. To achieve this geometry using Cu2S, cation exchange was applied to an array of CdS nanorods to produce well-defined CdS-Cu2S core-shell nanorods. Previous work has demonstrated single-nanowire photovoltaic devices from this material system, but in this work, the cation exchange chemistry has been applied to nanorod arrays to produce ensemble-level devices with microscale sizes. The core-shell nanorod array devices show power conversion efficiencies of up to 3.8%. In addition, these devices are stable when measured in air after nearly one month of storage in a desiccator. These results are a first step in the development of large-area nanostructured Cu2S-based photovoltaics that can be processed from solution.

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Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004946; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1579817

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1832455

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 6; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 88 works

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14 SOLAR ENERGY
nanorod array
core−shell
photovoltaic
solution processed
copper sulfide

Title: Core–Shell CdS–Cu2S Nanorod Array Solar Cells

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Title: Core–Shell CdS–Cu₂S Nanorod Array Solar Cells