Silar deposition of cds and Ag Pb Co Ni Cu doped cds quantum dots qds forftotio2qdsii3ptfto solar cell performance enhancement

Abstract

Developing low cost and high photovoltaic performance solar cells for harvesting and converting solar energy to electricity is one of the most promising technologies to meet the societal needs for sustainable clean energy with minimum environmental impact. In recent years, Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells (QDSSC) have been regarded for use as next generation solar cells. It offers the impressive ability to harvest sunlight, photostability, high molar extinction coefficients which allow a better light harvesting, size-dependent optical properties, Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG), ease of fabrication and low cost. A typical QDSSC consists of a QDs-sensitized titanium oxide (TiO2) film over Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) as a photoanode, iodide/triiodide (I-/I3 -) as redox electrolyte, and platinum (Pt) as the counter electrode. The overall objective of the present work is to study the photovoltaic performance of un-doped and doped CdS QDs/TiO2/FTO photoanodes using Pt counter electrode and I-/I3 - electrolyte. The present thesis is divided into six chapters and is concisely discussed below. Chapter 1 provides the information about photovoltaic effect, photovoltaic cell, classification of solar cells, characteristics of the solar cell, QDSSCs, choice of sensitizer, major challenges, choice of dopant and goals and objectives. Chapter 2 contains introduction of spin coating method, TiO2 paste preparation and spin coating of TiO2 on FTO substrate newline