Integration of surfactant-free silicon nanocrystal in hybrid solar cells

Here, we discuss the results related to improvement of electronic interactions and structural properties of hybrid organic/inorganic composites based on free-standing and surfactant-free silicon nanocrystals (Si-ncs). Performance of Si-ncs in bulk-heterojunction solar cells combined with a polythieno[3,4-b]thiophenebenzodithiophene (PTB7) is studied. Further we demonstrate that three dimensional surface engineering of Si-ncs by low-cost and room temperature DC atmospheric microplasma processing in ethanol considerably enhance the Si-ncs electronic interactions with polymers and enhance the overall external quantum efficiency conversion of bulk heterojunction solar cells without using any surfactant.