Restricted charge recombination process in PbS quantum dot sensitized solar cells by different coating cycles of ZnS films

The relatively low power conversion efficiency (PCE) of quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) is attributed to charge recombination at the interfaces. Charge recombination process could be suppressed by coating the QD layer with a wide band gap semiconductor such as ZnS, which acts as a blocking layer between the QDs and hole transport material (HTM). In present study, to improve PCE of PbS quantum dot sensitized solar cells, ZnS passivation layer has been successfully fabricated on PbS (QDs) by simple successive ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method at room temperature and ambient pressure. The effect of ZnS layer thickness on the photovoltaic properties was investigated by changing the coating cycles (n). Experimental results showed that ZnS passivation layer improved the photovoltaic performances of PbS QDSSCs by hindering the charge recombination process. The solar cell containing of ZnS layer with n=6 showed higher (short-circuit current density (Jsc), fill factor (FF) and PCE of 11.11mA.cm-2, 60.37% and 3.96%, respectively. By increasing the number of coating cycles to an optimum value of 6, the solar cell efficiency improved. We explored the reasons for this improvement and demonstrated that it is caused by a lower charge recombination of photo-injected electrons with the holes of HTM. The effect of coating cycles has been investigated by UV–Vis spectra and current density–voltage analysis.