Boosting the current density in inverted Schottky PbS quantum dot solar cells with conjugated electrolyte

Abstract Herein, we correlate the chemical structure of the electrolyte with the performance of inverted Schottky quantum dot (QD) solar cells (SCs) having a structure of FTO/electrolyte/ p -type PbS QDs/MoO x /Au-Ag. QDSCs of polyethyleneimine (PEI) or poly[(9,9-bis(3′-(N,N-dimethylamino)propyl)-2,7-fluorene)-alt-1,4-phenylene] (PFN) were fabricated for comparison. The open-circuit voltage ( V OC ) of QDSCs scaled with the workfunction of electrolyte – modified fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Conjugated PFN electrolyte resulted in lower V OC but it boosted the current density ( J SC ) of QDSCs by lowering the interfacial potential barrier at FTO-PbS QDs contact.