Current–voltage characteristics of manganite–titanite perovskite junctions

• Benedikt Ifland,
• Patrick Peretzki,
• Birte Kressdorf,
• Philipp Saring,
• Andreas Kelling,
• Michael Seibt and
• Christian Jooss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1467–1484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.152

• electron–polaron hole–polaron pair generation and separation at the interface. Keywords: current–voltage characteristics; perovskites; photovoltaics; polarons; Introduction At present, photovoltaic devices are mainly based on high purity elemental or compound inorganic semiconducting materials with large

• is relatively small, the mobility is large and the diffusion length of excited electron–hole pairs can be in the 100 µm range for indirect semiconductors [1]. The examination of photovoltaic materials with properties deviating from conventional solar cells can lead to new strategies for a wide

• evaluation for photovoltaic systems reveal vastly different properties ranging from narrow band gap manganite oxides perovskites with hopping transport to broad band gap lead halide perovskites [9][12][13][14]. For the lead halide perovskites the constituents are: A = CH3NH3+, B = Pb, and X = I, Br, Cl

Using natural language processing techniques to inform research on nanotechnology

• Nastassja A. Lewinski and
• Bridget T. McInnes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1439–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.149

• ][27]. More recently, the research group expanded the scope to include applications of carbon nanotubes such as incorporation in photovoltaic cells and prostate cancer therapeutics [28]. The patents, which spanned the years 1992 to 2009, were collected from E.U., Japan, Korea and U.S. patent databases

Enhanced fullerene–Au(111) coupling in (2√3 × 2√3)R30° superstructures with intermolecular interactions

• Michael Paßens,
• Rainer Waser and
• Silvia Karthäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1421–1431, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.147

• extensively studied self-assembled systems due to their rich structural and electronic properties [1]. A considerable interest in C60 films arises from their use in photovoltaic cells [2][3] and potential applications in molecular electronics [4]. Likewise, C60 molecules can be used as chemical anchoring

Electronic interaction in composites of a conjugated polymer and carbon nanotubes: first-principles calculation and photophysical approaches

• Florian Massuyeau,
• Jany Wéry,
• Jean-Luc Duvail,
• Serge Lefrant,
• Abu Yaya,
• Chris Ewels and
• Eric Faulques

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1138–1144, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.115

• emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells [1][2]. Tuning the optical and conductive properties of ECPs is possible either by tailoring the polymer backbone with chemical side groups [3] or by preparing composites with nanoparticles [4][5][6][7]. ECP hybrids containing carbon nanotubes, fullerene-based

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• optical functionality of novel photoanode structures. Keywords: dye-sensitized solar cells; light trapping; optical characterization; photoanode modeling; titania nanostructures; Introduction The exploitation of solar irradiation, in particular by the use of photovoltaic (PV) technologies, is a widely

• and simple manufacturing techniques ensures low-cost production and makes DSSCs a promising class of photovoltaic cells, even though the demonstrated efficiency on the laboratory scale is still well below the performance of more mature photovoltaic technologies. Much effort is devoted to the

• improvement of the conversion efficiency while maintaining low cost and extending the device lifetime. One of the key factors for efficient photovoltaic conversion is related to the optical properties of the photoactive material. The knowledge of the optical functionality can therefore aid in the optimization

Graphene quantum interference photodetector

• Mahbub Alam and
• Paul L. Voss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 726–735, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.74

• generation mechanisms in graphene photodetectors include the photovoltaic effect, photothermoelectric effect, bolometric effect and phonon drag effect [3]. In the photovoltaic effect, the built-in electric field generated in the junction of p- and n-type graphene is utilized for separation of photogenerated

Simple approach for the fabrication of PEDOT-coated Si nanowires

• Mingxuan Zhu,
• Marielle Eyraud,
• Judikael Le Rouzo,
• Nadia Ait Ahmed,
• Florence Boulc’h,
• Claude Alfonso,
• Philippe Knauth and
• François Flory

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 640–650, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.65

• poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT/PSS) (a successful, commercial, conducting polymer) onto a SiNW array. This gave very promising results for photovoltaic cells based on this heterojunction, with a photon capture efficiency (PCE) of 6.72% [15]. The resulting SiNW/PEDOT/PSS

Tm-doped TiO₂ and Tm₂Ti₂O₇ pyrochlore nanoparticles: enhancing the photocatalytic activity of rutile with a pyrochlore phase

• Desiré M. De los Santos,
• Javier Navas,
• Teresa Aguilar,
• Antonio Sánchez-Coronilla,
• Concha Fernández-Lorenzo,
• Rodrigo Alcántara,
• Jose Carlos Piñero,
• Ginesa Blanco and
• Joaquín Martín-Calleja

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 605–616, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.62

• and photovoltaic applications as they can improve the photon absorption efficiency of semiconductors. Moreover, the luminescence phenomena are typically related to recombination processes, so the higher luminescence signal, the higher the recombination process. Thus, as the samples comprised of a

Hollow plasmonic antennas for broadband SERS spectroscopy

• Gabriele C. Messina,
• Mario Malerba,
• Pierfrancesco Zilio,
• Ermanno Miele,
• Michele Dipalo,
• Lorenzo Ferrara and
• Francesco De Angelis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 492–498, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.50

• important breakthrough, since it enables the combination of plasmonic with electrical functionalities: the antennas can be used also as nanoelectrodes for photovoltaic, electro-photochemical catalysis, optoelectronic and bio-electrochemical devices. As a final remark, it should also be considered that the

Carrier multiplication in silicon nanocrystals: ab initio results

• Ivan Marri,
• Marco Govoni and
• Stefano Ossicini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 343–352, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.33

• limitations of traditional solar cell devices. Among such innovative materials, nanostructures have emerged as an important class of materials that can be used to realize efficient photovoltaic devices. When these systems are implemented into solar cells, new effects can be exploited to maximize the harvest

Nanoporous Ge thin film production combining Ge sputtering and dopant implantation

• Jacques Perrin Toinin,
• Alain Portavoce,
• Khalid Hoummada,
• Michaël Texier,
• Maxime Bertoglio,
• Sandrine Bernardini,
• Marco Abbarchi and
• Lee Chow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 336–342, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.32

• making the material quasi-direct through the process of Brillouin zone folding [3]. For example, non-phonon processes were shown to dominate in the case of porous Si under strong confinement potential [4][5][6]. In addition, Q-effects in porous semiconductors can be interesting for photovoltaic

Bright photoluminescence from ordered arrays of SiGe nanowires grown on Si(111)

• D. J. Lockwood,
• N. L. Rowell,
• A. Benkouider,
• A. Ronda,
• L. Favre and
• I. Berbezier

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2498–2504, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.259

• fabrication of various NWs for applications such as photovoltaic tandem solar cells has been enabled [10][11][12]. Most of the device specifications require a low cost fabrication process with good control over the NW reproducibility and uniformity [13]. A variety of different NW growth methods have been

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

• Erki Kärber,
• Atanas Katerski,
• Ilona Oja Acik,
• Valdek Mikli,
• Arvo Mere,
• Ilmo Sildos and
• Malle Krunks

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2398–2402, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

• with a band gap of 1.5 eV that is often used as a photovoltaic absorber. Previously published, related work by our research group regarding CIS-based solar cells includes: the synthesis and properties of CIS [5][6], application of CIS in extremely thin absorber solar cells based on ZnO nanorods [7

In situ metalation of free base phthalocyanine covalently bonded to silicon surfaces

• Fabio Lupo,
• Cristina Tudisco,
• Federico Bertani,
• Enrico Dalcanale and
• Guglielmo G. Condorelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2222–2229, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.231

• Free (Pc) and metallophthalocyanines (M–Pc) are molecules of great interest because of their versatile optical and electronic properties as well as their thermal stability [1]. These properties make them attractive molecular materials for applications in photovoltaic cells [2], sensing devices [3][4

Properties of plasmonic arrays produced by pulsed-laser nanostructuring of thin Au films

• Katarzyna Grochowska,
• Katarzyna Siuzdak,
• Peter A. Atanasov,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Anna Dikovska,
• Nikolay N. Nedyalkov and
• Gerard Śliwiński

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2102–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.219

• is widely used and investigated because of its stable physical and electrochemical properties and finds application in optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices, as well as in the sensitive detection of species such as glucose, hydrogen peroxide and DNA fragments [56][57]. Samples of the Au–ITO

Silicon and germanium nanocrystals: properties and characterization

• Ivana Capan,
• Alexandra Carvalho and
• José Coutinho

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1787–1794, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.189

• comparable to traditional photovoltaic semiconductors, has been demonstrated [3]. Different approaches have been made to achieve light emission from group-IV semiconductor nanostructures despite the indirect nature of the energy gaps. The quantum confinement of carriers has led to efficient luminescence and

Growth evolution and phase transition from chalcocite to digenite in nanocrystalline copper sulfide: Morphological, optical and electrical properties

• Priscilla Vasthi Quintana-Ramirez,
• Ma. Concepción Arenas-Arrocena,
• José Santos-Cruz,
• Marina Vega-González,
• Omar Martínez-Alvarez,
• Víctor Manuel Castaño-Meneses,
• Laura Susana Acosta-Torres and
• Javier de la Fuente-Hernández

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1542–1552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.166

• cadmium, such as cadmium telluride, CdTe, or cadmium sulfide, CdS, have been widely investigated regarding their application in the optoelectronic field, mainly in photovoltaic devices due to the semiconducting, electronic and optical properties [1][2][3][4][5]. Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal, which

• bulk semiconductor due to the quantum effects [6]. Among the non-toxic nanomaterials with a small energy band gap that are promising for photovoltaic devices are: iron sulfide (FeS2), tungsten sulfide (WS2) and copper sulfide (Cu2S) [7]. The last is a terrestrially abundant and interesting

Review of nanostructured devices for thermoelectric applications

• Giovanni Pennelli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1268–1284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.141

• the fields of energy recovery and green energy harvesting. For example, they can be used as alternative to photovoltaic cells [1][2], or together with advanced photovoltaic cells [3][4], for the conversion of solar energy into electrical power. Several industrial processes need a large amount of heat

• TEGs as alternative to photovoltaic cells must aim for the maximum exploitation of solar energy, hence to the maximum conversion efficiency. A strong increase of conversion efficiency would also allow for the minimization of the heat dissipated on the cold side, so that the exchanging surface of the

An insight into the mechanism of charge-transfer of hybrid polymer:ternary/quaternary chalcopyrite colloidal nanocrystals

• Parul Chawla,
• Son Singh and
• Shailesh Narain Sharma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1235–1244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.137

• attractive candidate for hybrid solar cells applications. Keywords: chalcopyrites; charge-transfer; hybrid organic-inorganic; nanocomposites; P3HT; Introduction Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices composed of polymer matrices can be regarded as promising third-generation solar cells amongst emerging PV

Surface processes during purification of InP quantum dots

• Natalia Mordvinova,
• Pavel Emelin,
• Alexander Vinokurov,
• Sergey Dorofeev,
• Artem Abakumov and
• Tatiana Kuznetsova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1220–1225, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.135

• last two decades due to their unique size-dependent optical properties and their potential applications in the areas of photoluminescent devices, light-emitting diodes, displays, photodetectors, photovoltaic devices, solar cells and biological imaging [1][2]. III–V Nanocrystals are of increasing

Organic and inorganic–organic thin film structures by molecular layer deposition: A review

• Pia Sundberg and
• Maarit Karppinen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1104–1136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.123

• decline [77]. Different combinations of terephthalaldehyde, 1,4-diaminobenzene and ethanedihydrazide have been used to fabricate quantum dots of varying lengths: These thin films showed promise for sensitization in photovoltaic devices [79][80]. Hybrid inorganic–organic thin films Since the first

Functionalized nanostructures for enhanced photocatalytic performance under solar light

• Liejin Guo,
• Dengwei Jing,
• Maochang Liu,
• Yubin Chen,
• Shaohua Shen,
• Jinwen Shi and
• Kai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 994–1004, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.113

• properties of their constituent phases with properties that are directly related to the electronic and atomic character of their interfaces [65]. The concept has been proven in photovoltaic cells and optoelectronic devices, where junction-type semiconductors show greatly improved efficiency compared with

Optical modeling-assisted characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells using TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoanodes

• Jung-Ho Yun,
• Il Ku Kim,
• Yun Hau Ng,
• Lianzhou Wang and
• Rose Amal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 895–902, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.102

• , University of New South Wales, Kensington NSW 2052, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.5.102 Abstract Photovoltaic characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays as photoanodes were investigated. The TNT arrays were 3.3, 11.5, and 20.6 μm long with the pore diameters of 50

• , 78.6, and 98.7 nm, respectively. The longest TNT array of 20.6 μm in length showed enhanced photovoltaic performances of 3.87% with significantly increased photocurrent density of 8.26 mA·cm−2. This improvement is attributed to the increased amount of the adsorbed dyes and the improved electron

• DSSCs showed a 25 % higher charge collection efficiency than the TiO2 nanoparticle-based DSSCs. An outstanding optical effect induced by the well-ordered 1D-structure of the TNT array contributed to the improvement of the photovoltaic performance as well [5]. The light that penetrates into the open

Optical and structural characterization of oleic acid-stabilized CdTe nanocrystals for solution thin film processing

• Claudio Davet Gutiérrez-Lazos,
• Mauricio Ortega-López,
• Manuel A. Pérez-Guzmán,
• A. Mauricio Espinoza-Rivas,
• Francisco Solís-Pomar,
• Rebeca Ortega-Amaya,
• L. Gerardo Silva-Vidaurri,
• Virginia C. Castro-Peña and
• Eduardo Pérez-Tijerina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 881–886, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.100

• for preserve their size effects [20][21][22]. All of these techniques need ink-like stable dispersions comprising functionalized nanomaterials dispersed in a convenient solvent. Drop-casting offers a cost efficient production of photovoltaic semiconductor thin films. Nevertheless, depending on the

• CIS films for photovoltaic applications. Jasieniak et al. [24] deposited photovoltaic cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films by using pyridine-capped CdTe nanocrystals. In their approach, CdTe nanocrystals were deposited from solution by a layer-by-layer process with subsequent annealing per layer at 300

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• their easy fabrication methods in addition to their unique properties carbon nanodots are a versatile material candidate for bioimaging, sensors, catalysis and photovoltaic devices [107][108][109][110]. There are also some reviews covering the synthetic methods, physical and chemical properties, and