| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1642352 | Materials Letters | 2015 | 5 Pages |
•We are the first one to report growing a novelty of Cu2−xTe/MnTe sensitizer for SSCs.•Co-sensitization can improve the photovoltaic properties.•An Eg becomes narrower for Cu2−xTe/MnTe, attributing to broader absorption region.•The best η=1.380% obtained from Cu2−xTe(19)/MnTe(9) with a polysulfide electrolyte.•The proper cascade structure facilitates electron transferring at the NP interfaces.
Novel Cu2−xTe/MnTe nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process to form a co-sensitizer for near-infrared absorbing solar cell devices. The energy gaps of single MnTe and Cu2−xTe were 0.92 and 0.99 eV, respectively, whereas, the energy gap was reduced to 0.87 eV by the co-sensitization of Cu2−xTe and MnTe. The photovoltaic measurement shows the efficiencies of single Cu2−xTe(19) and MnTe(7) of 0.252% and 0.011%, respectively and the use of Cu2−xTe as an inner and MnTe as a top layer yielded the highest efficiency of 1.380% under 100 mW/cm2 (AM 1.5G) radiation due to the proper cascade structure attributes electron transferring at the semiconductor interface.
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