Solid-state hybrid photovoltaic cells with a novel redox polymer and nanostructured inorganic semiconductors

Here we introduce a new kind of stable inorganic/organic hybrid photovoltaic cells with redox polymers and nanostructured inorganic semiconductors. The redox polymers based on Nafion and metal complexes (Ru(bpy)32+/3+ or Fe(bpy)32+/3+) are applied in photovoltaic cells for the first time. These redox polymers with good charge transport performance are the hole transport material and the solid-state electrolyte in the photovoltaic cells. The nanoscale structures of inorganic semiconductors of ZnO nanorods/CdSe nanoparticle films used as the light-harvesting material are easily realized by a two-step electrodeposition. In terms of the preliminary current–voltage characterizations of the complete photovoltaic device (SnO2:F/ZnO nanorods/CdSe/Nafion[Ru(bpy)32+/3+, PEG]/Au), an overall energy conversion efficiency (() about 4% is achieved. A comparable energy conversion efficiency is also obtained for the photovoltaic cell with inexpensive Fe(bpy)32+/3+ in the redox polymer. These photovoltaic cells retain 90% for their energy conversion efficiency in the first six months, showing the extended high stability. In addition, this kind of photovoltaic cells recovered easily by water due to the advantages of the Nafion-based redox polymer. These good results, joining with the easily accessible techniques of the cell fabrication, indicate that the proposed solid-state photovoltaic cells are hopefully to be a new type of ‘cheap’ and long-life photovoltaic devices for practical applications.