Solution-processed CdTe nanocrystals solar cells have attracted much attention due to their low cost, low material consumption, and potential for roll-to-roll production. Among all kinds of semiconductor materials, CdS exhibits the lowest lattice mismatch with CdTe, which permits high junction quality and high device performance. In this study, high quality CdS nanocrystals were prepared by a non-injection technique with tetraethylthiuram disufide and 2,2′-dithiobisbenzothiazole as the stabilizers. Based on the CdTe and CdS nanocrystals, devices with the architecture of ITO/ZnO/CdS/CdTe/MoO_x/Au were fabricated successfully by a solution process under ambient condition. The effects of annealing conditions, film thickness, and detailed device structure on the CdTe/CdS nanocrystal solar cells were investigated and discussed in detail. We demonstrate that high junction quality can be obtained by using CdS nanocrystal thin film compared to traditional CdS film via chemical bath deposition (CBD). The best device had short circuit current density (J_sc), open circuit voltage (V_oc) and fill factor (FF) of 17.26 mA/cm², 0.56 V, and 52.84%, respectively, resulting in a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.14%, which is significantly higher than that reported using CBD CdS as the window layer. This work provides important suggestions for the further improvement of efficiency in CdTe nanocrystal solar cells.

We propose Sb-doped TiO₂ as electron acceptor material for depleted CdTe nanocrystal (NC) hetero-junction solar cells. Novel devices with the architecture of FTO/ZnO/Sb:TiO₂/CdTe/Au based on CdTe NC and TiO₂ precursor are fabricated by rational ambient solution process. By introducing TiO₂ with dopant concentration, we are able to tailor the optoelectronic properties of NC solar cells. Our novel devices demonstrate a very high open circuit voltage of 0.74 V, which is the highest V_oc reported for any CdTe NC based solar cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of solar cells increases with the increase of Sb-doped content from 1% to 3%, then decreases almost linearly with further increase of Sb content due to the recombination effect. The champion device shows J_sc, V_oc, FF, and PCE of 14.65 mA/cm², 0.70 V, 34.44, and 3.53% respectively, which is prospective for solution processed NC solar cells with high V_oc.

Nanocrystal solar cells (NCs) allow for large scale solution processing under ambient conditions, permitting a promising approach for low-cost photovoltaic products. Although an up to 10% power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been realized with the development of device fabrication technologies, the open circuit voltage (V_oc) of CdTe NC solar cells has stagnated below 0.7 V, which is significantly lower than most CdTe thin film solar cells fabricated by vacuum technology (around 0.8 V~0.9 V). To further improve the NC solar cells’ performance, an enhancement in the V_oc towards 0.8–1.0 V is urgently required. Given the unique processing technologies and physical properties in CdTe NC, the design of an optimized band alignment and improved junction quality are important issues to obtain efficient solar cells coupled with high V_oc. In this work, an efficient method was developed to improve the performance and V_oc of solution-processed CdTe nanocrystal/TiO₂ hetero-junction solar cells. A thin layer of solution-processed CdS NC film (~5 nm) as introduced into CdTe NC/TiO₂ to construct hetero-junction solar cells with an optimized band alignment and p-n junction quality, which resulted in a low dark current density and reduced carrier recombination. As a result, devices with improved performance (5.16% compared to 2.63% for the control device) and a V_oc as high as 0.83 V were obtained; this V_oc value is a record for a solution-processed CdTe NC solar cell.