NAROBAND · Environmental friendly narrow band-gap colloidal nanocrystals for optoelectronic devices
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-06-01 → 2019-05-31
- EU contribution
- €158,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Environmental friendly narrow band-gap colloidal nanocrystals for optoelectronic devices
The lack of the materials with low band-gap initiated the project NAROBAND which aimed on the development of environmentally friendly materials that absorb in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most important, NAROBAND main objective is the fabrication of high efficient optoelectronic devices operating in such long wavelengths as we experience a burst of emerging near and mid-IR technologies which spans from health and environmental applications (solar cells, LED’s, lasers, photodetectors etc.). The materials that are currently used for NIR application are prohibitively expensive for mass production. Therefore, NAROBAND aimed in the synthesis of low-cost materials such as colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) for the development cutting edge-technologies for a variety of optoelectronic devices.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
In recent years a widespread investigation of semiconductor materials and its use in optoelectronic devices has taken place. Despite the vast variety of semiconductor materials, solution processable semiconductor nanocrystals (NC’s) take lead thanks to their excellent optoelectronic properties (tunable band-gap, high PLQY and optical stability) while they become more and more appealing for their low production cost. Although, a variety of semiconductor NC’s have been synthesized for application in the visible spectral region, only few examples exist with tunability in mid and near-IR, and most notable high toxicity mercury and lead based NCs. On the other hand, nowadays we experience a burst of emerging near and mid-IR technologies (e.g. solar cells, detectors, night cameras) which are moving towards the use of environmentally friendly IR emitting materials for large scale production. Therefore, NAROBAND aims to exploit the synthesis and the functionalization of low-toxic narrow-band gap Ag2SxSey NC’s via both chemical and physical routes towards the fabrication of environmental friendly, low cost solar cell devices. The project focus on achieving full control of the bandgap (1.2eV–0.4eV) via quantum confinement and stoichiometry allowing to decouple nanocrystals size and surface effects from bandgap, leading to a better control of the optoelectronic properties. Moreover, throughout careful surface characterization and functionalization NAROBAND aims to suppression of the trap state density, enhancing the carrier mobility and manipulating the energy levels of the valence and conduction band of the NC’s. These material advancements will pave the way towards, firstly, the fabrication of high efficient IR solar cell devices and later on the realization of tandem solar cell by using the conventional Si technology to harvest the high energy electromagnetic radiation of the sun, while the aforementioned solar cell device will collect the, so far wasted, IR radiation.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE CIENCIES FOTONIQUES · CastelldefelsCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union