Synthesis of 4-aminothiophenol functionalized quantum dots to sensitize silver nanowires and its application for solar cells

•4-aminothiophenol functionalized quantum dots were prepared.•Silver nanowires could bind to the amino group of 4-aminothiophenol.•The quantum dots sensitized silver nanowires was formed.•The conversion efficiencyof QDSSC based on this nanocomposite reached 3.34%.

A novel strategy for synthesizing a quantum dot (QD)-sensitized silver nanowire (AgNW) nanocomposite has been reported. 4-aminothiophenol (PATP) functionalized quantum dots (QDs-PATP) were prepared using the thiol (SH) end of PATP molecules strongly bound to the surface of QDs via a ligand exchange technique. AgNWs could bind to the remaining amino group (NH2) of PATP via self-assembly techniques, and quantum dot-sensitized silver nanowires were then formed. The nanocomposite is denoted as QDs-PATP@AgNWs. The photovoltaic properties of a quantum dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) based on QDs-PATP@AgNWs were investigated. Under AM 1.5 illumination, the QDSSC reached a peak conversion efficiency of 3.34%. This finding suggests that QDs-PATP@AgNWs had potential applications as a photoanode for QDSSC.