Sunny Record: Breakthrough for Hybrid Solar Cells
In ScienceDaily, February 2 2010
Scientists at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) have succeeded in developing a method for treating the surface of nanoparticles which greatly improves the efficiency of organic solar cells. The researchers were able to attain an efficiency of 2 percent by using so-called quantum dots composed of cadmium selenide.
These measurements, well above the previous efficiency ratings of 1 to 1.8 percent, were confirmed by the "Dye and Organic Solar Cells" research group of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems at the FMF. The photoactive layer of hybrid solar cells consists of a mixture of inorganic nanoparticles and an organic polymer. As it is theoretically possible to apply the method developed by the researchers to many nanoparticles, this breakthrough opens up new potential for increasing the efficiency of this type of solar cell even further.