Conversion of solar energy into electrical energy using solar cells is one of the most successful and environmentally friendly technologies for electricity generation. Current solar cells are silicon based, which require complicated synthetic processes and are unavoidably expensive. Metal oxide (MO) based nanomaterials have the advantage of being stable, efficient and inexpensive, but need to be sensitized by semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). Organic linker molecules connect quantum dots to metal oxides in making solar cells.  Bifunctional organic linker molecules were designed and synthesized to facilitate electron injection and charge transfer between MO based nanostructures and semiconductor QDs. The organic linker molecules will then be assembled with the nanomaterials.  Synthesis of organic linker molecules and the fundamental optical and electrical properties of nanomaterials connected by the linker molecules will be discussed. The long-term objective is the development of solar cells with low production costs and high efficiency. 

Synthesis of organic linker molecules to couple nanomaterials

247th National Meeting (2014)

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