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Purification of Colloidal Nanocrystals Along the Road to Highly Efficient Photovoltaic Devices

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Abstract

Colloidal semiconducting nanocrystals, also called colloidal quantum dots (QDs) afford efficient photoconversion from visible to infrared wavelength owing to their size-dependent optoelectronic properties. To manufacture the highly performing devices utilizing colloidal NCs, however, unreacted impurities should be removed following synthesis. As the scale of NCs synthesis increases, especially in industry, the need is heightened for large-scale purification methods that can retain the desirable optoelectronic characteristics as of as-synthesized samples. Particularly, for the use of colloidal quantum dots (QD) films for photovoltaic active layers, control over the surface during the purification needs keen attention because residual impurities or trap states introduced by inappropriate treatments during the purification are detrimental to the carrier collection efficiency of the device. In this article, we review several approaches to the purification of QDs and their successful implications for formation of the efficient photovoltaic devices. We group the purification methods according to the key property by which the separation is achieved, and discuss the scalability of each method specifically focusing on the possibility of implementing a continuous process flow that is compatible with continuous synthesis processes developed for large scale production of QDs. Finally, we present recent efforts for the highly efficient photovoltaic QD devices and discuss the importance of purification in terms of device performance.

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Fig. 1

Adapted from ref. [39] with permission

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Adapted from ref. [53] with permission

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Adapted from ref. [54] with permission

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Adapted from ref. [63] with permission

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Adapted from ref. [71] with permission

Fig. 6

Adapted from refs. [75] and [17] with permission

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Creative Materials Discovery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2019M3D1A1078299) funded by Ministry of Science and ICT. This work was also supported by the Technology Innovation Program (20192050100060) and Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (20173010013200‬) ‬funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea) and the NRF Grant funded by the MSIT (2019R1A2B5B03070407). ABG and MLK acknowledge support from the US NSF (ECCS-EPMD program, Grant 1711322). MLK additionally acknowledges an NSF IGERT Graduate Fellowship through Grant 1250052. ‬

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  1. Department of Energy Science and Center for Artificial Atoms, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, 16419, South Korea

    Taewan Kim & Sohee Jeong

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Mathew L. Kelley & Andrew B. Greytak

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, 52828, South Korea

    Duckjong Kim

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  1. Taewan Kim
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  3. Duckjong Kim
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Correspondence to Duckjong Kim, Andrew B. Greytak or Sohee Jeong.

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Kim, T., Kelley, M.L., Kim, D. et al. Purification of Colloidal Nanocrystals Along the Road to Highly Efficient Photovoltaic Devices. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 8, 1309–1321 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-020-00231-5

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