Sonochemistry-assisted black/red phosphorus hybrid quantum dots for dye-sensitized solar cells.

Abstract The co-sensitization of mesoscopic TiO 2 anode is a promising solution to wide-spectra dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with improved power conversion efficiency. Quantum dots are featured with tunable bandgaps, small sizes and high absorption coefficients, therefore they are always combined with state-of-the-art organic dyes for co-sensitized solar cells. We present here the sonochemistry-assisted synthesis of hybrid black/red phosphorus quantum dots (BP/RPQDs) for DSSC applications. The preliminary results demonstrate that hybrid BP/RPQDs have prolonged recombination lifetime of photogenerated carriers and light-response from ultraviolet to visible and even near-infrared (NIR) region. Upon assembly into liquid-junction DSSCs, the devices with BP/RPQDs-only and BP/RPQDs-N719 co-sensitizer achieve efficiencies of 0.12% and 8.02% in comparison with 7.60% for N719-only solar cell. Using photofluorescent photoanode from mesoscopic TiO 2 and long-persistence phosphor (LPP), the new-typed DSSC presents persistent power generation performances after ceasing simulated sunlight irradiation. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Hybrid BP/RPQDs are made by a sonochemistry-assisted method. • The hybrid BP/RPQDs show wide light-response in light-harvesters of DSSCs. • BP/RPQDs-only solar cells show a PCE of 0.12%. • An efficiency as high as 8.02% is achieved for BP/RPQDs tailored DSSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]