Analysis on the effect of polysulfide electrolyte composition for higher performance of Si quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

Quantum dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSC) based on multiple exciton generation of QD has been expected to realize high efficiency. This work focused on Si QD instead of conventional QD materials because of their toxicity and scarcity. Si QDs were fabricated by multi-hollow discharge plasma chemical vapor deposition. General QDSCs use polysulfide electrolyte because it is suitable for stabilizing QDs and its redox reaction is the best as compared with other redox systems. The improvement of redox reaction which is one of the slowest reactions in the kinetic analysis is closely connected with the enhancement of performance. For the enhancement on the overall performance of Si QDSC, the performance dependence on electrolyte composition was investigated. The concentrations of Na2S and S were varied for the activation of redox reaction and KCl concentration was optimized for the improvement of electrolyte characteristics. Consequently, the best performance of Si QDSC was obtained with 1 M Na2S, 2 M S, and 0.4M KCl polysulfide electrolyte. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.