Development of CuInSe2 nanocrystal and nanoring inks for low-cost solar cells.

Guo, Qijie; Kim, Suk Jun; Kar, Mahaprasad; Shafarman, William N; Birkmire, Robert W; Stach, Eric A; Agrawal, Rakesh; Hillhouse, Hugh W · Nano Lett · 2008

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The creation of a suitable inorganic colloidal nanocrystal ink for use in a scalable coating process is a key step in the development of low-cost solar cells. Here, we present a facile solution synthesis of chalcopyrite CuInSe 2 nanocrystals and demonstrate that inks based on these nanocrystals can be used to create simple solar cells, with our first cells exhibiting an efficiency of 3.2% under AM1.5 illumination. We also report the first solution synthesis of uniform hexagonal shaped single crystals CuInSe 2 nanorings by altering the synthesis parameter.