Boosting the Performance of Environmentally Friendly Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells over 13% Efficiency by Dual Sensitizers with Cascade Energy Structure

Generally, high light-harvesting efficiency, electron-injection efficiency, and charge-collection efficiency are the prerequisites for high-efficiency quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). However, it is fairly difficult for a single QD sensitizer to meet these three requirements simultaneously. It is demonstrated that these parameters can be felicitously balanced by a cosensitization strategy through the adoption of environmental-friendly Zn-Cu-In-Se and Zn-Cu-In-S dual QD sensitizers with cascade energy structure. Experimental results indicate that: i) the combination of the dual QDs can improve the light-harvesting capability of the cells, especially in the visible light window; ii) the cosensitization approach can facilitate electron injection, benefitting from the cascade energy structure of the two QD sensitizers employed; iii) the charge-collection efficiency can be remarkably enhanced by the suppressed charge-recombination process due to the improved QD coverage on TiO₂ . Consequently, this cosensitization strategy delivers a new certified efficiency record of 12.98% for liquid-junction QDSCs under AM 1.5G 1 sun irradiation. Moreover, the constructed cells exhibit good stability in a high-humidity environment.