Nano-enabled photovoltaics. Progress in materials and methodologies

Abstract

Nanoenabled photovoltaics consist of a family of related approaches to make solar cells that use nanosized material elements, involving a combination of inorganic and organic components and hard and soft matter, including liquid electrolytes, which are combined using low-cost preparation methods, mainly by low-temperature solution processes. This type of solar cells have been developed rather strongly in recent times in three main directions, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), organic bulk heterojunction solar cells (BHJs), and quantum dot (QD)-based solar cells. The progress has been realized in new molecules, materials, and preparation methods that boosted the performance in many of these types of solar cells. On another hand, a wide range of scientific work involving characterization tools and modeling has produced detailed understanding of many features of the device operation. The Perspectives presented in this issue show an updated view of these aspects of development of the nanostructured solar cells.