Researchers at Western Australia’s Curtin University have identified that by adjusting the shape of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals they were able to control how they interacted with their surroundings and make them more efficient in various applications, including solar cells.
The study’s lead author, Associate Professor Guohua Jia from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the project had investigated how the shape of zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanocrystals affected how well molecules, known as ligands, stick to their surface.
Jia said ligands play an important role in controlling the behaviour and performance of ZnS nanocrystals in optoelectronic devices – devices that either produce light or use light to perform their functions, including solar PV cells.
“By adjusting the shape of these particles, we were able to control how they interacted with their surroundings and make them more efficient in various applications,” he said.
The researchers found flatter, more even particles called nanoplatelets allow more ligands to attach tightly, compared to other shapes like nanodots and nanorods which may have staggered arrangements.
Jia said the discovery provides an important knob for tuning the chemical functionality of ZnS nanocrystals and could enhance the performance of optoelectronic devices.
“The ability to control particle shapes could revolutionise product efficiency and performance,” he said.
“The ability to efficiently manipulate light and electricity is central to the advancement of faster, more efficient and more compact electronic systems. This includes LEDs, which convert electricity into light … as well as solar cells that convert light into electrical energy, powering devices using sunlight.”
Other devices that could be advanced by this finding include photodetectors that sense light and convert it into an electrical signal, such as in cameras and sensors, plus laser diodes used in fibre-optic communication that convert electrical signals into light for data transmission.
The full study, titled ‘Deciphering surface ligand density of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals: Shape matters’ will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
7 comments
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.