Panchromatic light harvesting by dye- and quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

•Panchromatic light is harvested by two different solar cells and solar energy split.•The visible light is harvested by a dye-sensitized solar cell.•The IR part is harvested by PbS:Hg quantum dots-sensitized solar cell.•A 13.0% of total power conversion efficiency is achieved.

A PbS:Hg quantum dots-sensitized solar cell (QDSC) combined with a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) to harvest panchromatic solar spectrum from the visible light to the near IR is demonstrated. We use the filter to split the solar energy and access the total conversion efficiency. The DSC performing 12.4% under AM1.5G sunlight was able to generate 9.1% with a short-wave pass filter cutting off photons of wavelength longer than 650 nm. On the other hand, QDSC performing 5.58% generated 3.42% with the use of a long-wave pass filter transmitting beyond 630 nm. Calculated on the basis of transmitted light, DSC and QDSC performed 24.0% and 5.90%, leading to almost 13.1% of estimated total power conversion efficiency by harvesting the solar energy from visible light to the NIR.