Reducing the building carbon emissions with quantum dot/polymer photovoltaic devices via the introduction of perovskite nanocrystals

Solution-processed photovoltaics hold great application potential in offsetting energy crisis and global warming. Organic hole transport materials (HTMs) have triggered the continued progress of solution-based solar cells, e.g., the promising quantum dot (QD) solar cells. Nevertheless, most organic semiconductors present the intrinsically low mobility, which greatly compromises efficient carrier transport. To counter this issue, we introduced the promising perovskite nanocrystals to modulate the electrical and molecular stacking properties of organic HTMs. With this strategy, the hole mobility was boosted from 5.0 × 10^-5 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ to 1.7 × 10^-3 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ with over 30-fold increase. Moreover, the introduction of perovskite nanocrystals can enable the favorable film morphology, face-on molecular orientation and the enhanced crystallization, which can accelerate carrier transport and reduce charge recombination in opto-electronic devices. With these benefits, the performance of QD/polymer solar cells was substantially enhanced from 11.1% to 14.1%, which was the topmost value in the field. More strikingly, QD/polymer photodetectors can also achieve the champion detectivity of ∼2.17 × 10¹³ Jones, with the 7-fold increase over that of the counterparts. More strikingly, the building carbon emission reduction with QD/polymer solar cells was further evaluated and the world map of CO₂ emission reduction was presented for the first time.