TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultra long-lived electron-hole separation within water-soluble colloidal ZnO nanocrystals
T2 - Prospective applications for solar energy production
AU - Cieślak, Anna M.
AU - Pavliuk, Mariia V.
AU - D'Amario, Luca
AU - Abdellah, Mohamed
AU - Sokołowski, Kamil
AU - Rybinska, Urszula
AU - Fernandes, Daniel L.A.
AU - Leszczyński, Michał K.
AU - Mamedov, Fikret
AU - El-Zhory, Ahmed M.
AU - Föhlinger, Jens
AU - Budinská, Alena
AU - Wolska-Pietkiewicz, Małgorzata
AU - Hammarström, Leif
AU - Lewiński, Janusz
AU - Sá, Jacinto
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Uppsala University and The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for financial support. A. M. Cieślak, K. Sokołowski and J. Lewiński have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the grant agreement No. 687008 (GOTSolar). J. Sá would like to acknowledge the Swedish Research Council (VR grant no. 2015-03764 ) for the financial support.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Zinc oxide was one of the first semiconductors used in dye-sensitized solar cells but its instability in aqueous media precludes its use for large-scale applications. Herein, we report on a novel ZnO nanocrystal material derived by an organometallic approach that is simultaneously stable and soluble in water due to its carboxylate oligoethylene glycol shell strongly anchored to the inorganic core by the head groups. The resulting unique inorganic core-organic shell interface also stabilizes the photo-generated hole, leading to a dramatic slowing down of charge recombination, which otherwise is a major hurdle in using nanostructured ZnO.
AB - Zinc oxide was one of the first semiconductors used in dye-sensitized solar cells but its instability in aqueous media precludes its use for large-scale applications. Herein, we report on a novel ZnO nanocrystal material derived by an organometallic approach that is simultaneously stable and soluble in water due to its carboxylate oligoethylene glycol shell strongly anchored to the inorganic core by the head groups. The resulting unique inorganic core-organic shell interface also stabilizes the photo-generated hole, leading to a dramatic slowing down of charge recombination, which otherwise is a major hurdle in using nanostructured ZnO.
KW - Advanced laser based spectroscopy
KW - Solar energy production prospectus
KW - Ultra long-lived electron-hole separation
KW - Water-soluble colloidal ZnO nanocrystals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84993843599&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84993843599&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.09.045
DO - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.09.045
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84993843599
VL - 30
SP - 187
EP - 192
JO - Nano Energy
JF - Nano Energy
SN - 2211-2855
ER -