High-Performance, Large-Area, and Ecofriendly Luminescent Solar Concentrators Using Copper-Doped InP Quantum Dots
Sadra Sadeghi,
Houman Bahmani Jalali,
Shashi Bhushan Srivastava,
Rustamzhon Melikov,
Isinsu Baylam,
Alphan Sennaroglu,
Sedat Nizamoglu
Affiliations
Sadra Sadeghi
Graduate School of Materials Science and Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Houman Bahmani Jalali
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Shashi Bhushan Srivastava
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Rustamzhon Melikov
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Isinsu Baylam
Koç University Surface Science and Technology Center (KUYTAM), Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Alphan Sennaroglu
Koç University Surface Science and Technology Center (KUYTAM), Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey; Laser Research Laboratory, Departments of Physics and Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey
Sedat Nizamoglu
Graduate School of Materials Science and Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey; Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey; Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul 34450, Turkey; Corresponding author
Summary: Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are promising building blocks for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). For their widespread use, they need to simultaneously satisfy non-toxic material content, low reabsorption, high photoluminescence quantum yield, and large-scale production. Here, copper doping of zinc carboxylate-passivated InP core and nano-engineering of ZnSe shell facilitated high in-device quantum efficiency of QDs over 80%, having well-matched spectral emission profile with the photo-response of silicon solar cells. The optimized QD-LSCs showed an optical quantum efficiency of 37% and an internal concentration factor of 4.7 for a 10 × 10-cm2 device area under solar illumination, which is comparable with the state-of-the-art LSCs based on cadmium-containing QDs and lead-containing perovskites. Synthesis of the copper-doped InP/ZnSe QDs in gram-scale and large-area deposition (3,000 cm2) onto commercial window glasses via doctor-blade technique showed their scalability for mass production. These results position InP-based QDs as a promising alternative for efficient solar energy harvesting.
