TY - JOUR A1 - Levchuk, I. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Krause, F. A1 - Osvet, A. A1 - Batentschuk, M. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Kolbeck, C. A1 - Herre, P. A1 - Steinrück, H.P. A1 - Peukert, W. A1 - Brabec, C. J. T1 - Industrially scalable and cost-effective Mn2+ doped ZnxCd1-xS/ZnS nanocrystals with 70% photoluminescence quantum yield, as efficient down-shifting materials in photovoltaics JF - Energy & Environmental Science N2 - We present colloidally stable and highly luminescent ZnxCd1_xS:Mn/ZnS core–shell nanocrystals (NCs) synthesized via a simple non-injection one-pot, two-step synthetic route, which can be easily upscaled. A systematic variation of the reaction component, parameters and thickness of the ZnS shell yielded doped nanocrystals with a very high photoluminescence quantum yield (pl) of 70%, which is the highest value yet reported for these Mn-doped sulfide-semiconductor NCs. These materials can be synthesized with high reproducibility in large quantities of the same high quality, i.e., the same pl using accordingly optimized reaction conditions. The application of these zero-reabsorption high quality NCs in the light conversion layers, deposited on top of a commercial monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) solar cell, led to a significant enhancement of the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of this device in the ultraviolet spectral region between 300 and 400 nm up to ca. 12%. EQE enhancement is reflected by an increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) by nearly 0.5 percentage points and approached the theoretical limit (0.6%) expected from down-shifting for this Si solar cell. The resulting PCE may result in a BoM (bill of materials) cost reduction of app. 3% for mono-Si photovoltaic modules. Such small but distinct improvements are expected to pave the road for an industrial application of doped semiconductor NCs as cost-effective light converters for silicon photovoltaic (PV) and other optoelectronic applications. KW - photovoltaics KW - solar cell KW - photoluminescence quantum yield KW - nanocrystals PY - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-358594 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ee03165f VL - 9 SP - 1083 EP - 1094 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge, England AN - OPUS4-35859 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -