Facile Synthesis of Colloidal CuO Nanocrystals for Light-Harvesting Applications

Lim, Yee-Fun; Choi, Joshua J.; Hanrath, Tobias

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Lim, Yee-Fun
Choi, Joshua J.
Hanrath, Tobias

Date

2012

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http://hdl.handle.net/10754/596995

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Abstract

CuO is an earth-abundant, nontoxic, and low band-gap material; hence it is an attractive candidate for application in solar cells. In this paper, a synthesis of CuO nanocrystals by a facile alcohothermal route is reported. The nanocrystals are dispersible in a solvent mixture of methanol and chloroform, thus enabling the processing of CuO by solution. A bilayer solar cell comprising of CuO nanocrystals and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) achieved a power conversion efficiency of 0.04%, indicating the potential of this material for light-harvesting applications.

Citation

Lim Y-F, Choi JJ, Hanrath T (2012) Facile Synthesis of Colloidal CuO Nanocrystals for Light-Harvesting Applications. Journal of Nanomaterials 2012: 1–6. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/393160.

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This work was funded by the KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability. The authors thank Dr. Jacek Jasieniak (CSIRO, Australia) for inspiration for the copper oxide synthesis and helpful comments on the paper, William Baumgardner and John Grazul for assistance with TEM imaging, and Dr. Maura Weathers for assistance with XRD. Device fabrication and testing was performed partly in the laboratory of Professor George Malliaras, while nanocrystal characterization was done using equipment in the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR), Cornell Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), Cornell Nanoscale Science & Technology Facility (CNF), and the KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability. Y. F. Lim acknowledges a research fellowship from A*STAR, Singapore. J. J. Choi acknowledges support from NSF IGERT fellowship.

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