• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.157-167
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• 2014

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells have attracted great attention due to their cost-effectiveness and solution-processability, as well as their size-dependent optical and electrical properties. The power conversion efficiency of CQD solar cells has rapidly increased up to ~8.6%, which corresponds to the 3 - 4 fold improvement during the last 3 - 4 years. Up to now, there have been many pioneering results in CQD solar cells. Here, we review the recent progress of CQD solar cells including CQD synthesis strategy and device structure engineering.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.420.1-420.1
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• 2016

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) is emerging as a promising active material for next-generation solar cell applications because of its inexpensive and solution-processable characteristics as well as unique properties such as a tunable band-gap due to the quantum-size effect and multiple exciton generation. However, the most widely used spin-coating method for the formation of the quantum dot (QD) active layers is generally hard to be adopted for high productivity and large-area process. Instead, the spray-coating technique may potentially be utilized for high-throughput production of the CQD solar cells (CQDSCs) because it can be adapted to continuous process and large-area deposition on various substrates although the cell efficiency is still lower than that of the devices fabricated with spin-coating method. In this work, we observed that the subsequent treatment of two different ligands, halide ion and butanedithiol, on the lead sulfide (PbS) QD layer significantly enhanced the cell efficiency of the spray CQDSCs. The maximum power conversion efficiency was 5.3%, comparable to that of the spin-coating CQDSCs.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.402-409
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• 2016

Thin films of lead sulfide colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) of 2.8 nm in diameter are fabricated and their surfaces are passivated by 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) ligand or hybrid type ($MPA+CdCl_2$) ligand, respectively. The changes in valence band electronic structure and atomic composition of each PbS CQD film upon post-treatment such as air, N2 annealing or UV/Ozone have been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy. The air annealing makes the CQD fermi level to move toward the valence band leading to "p-type doping" regardless of ligand type. The UV/Ozone post-treatment generates $Pb(OH)_2$, $PbSO_x$ and PbO on both CQD surfaces. But the amount of the PbO has been reduced in hybrid type ligand case, especially. That is probably because the extra Pb cations in (111) surface are additionally passivated by $Cl_2$ ligand, which limits the reaction between the Pb cation and ozone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.413-413
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• 2012

Lead sulfide (PbS) Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising material for the photovoltaic device due to its various outstanding properties such as tunable band-gap, solution processability, and infrared absorption. More importantly, PbS CQDs have large exciton Bohr radius of 20 nm due to the uniquely large dielectric constants that result in the strong quantum confinement. To exploit desirable properties in photovoltaic device, it is essential to fabricate a device exhibiting stable performance. Unfortunately, the performance of PbS NQDs based Schottky solar cell is considerably degraded according to the exposure in the air. The air-exposed degradation originates on the oxidation of interface between PbS NQDS layer and metal electrode. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the stability of Schottky junction device by inserting a passivation layer. We investigate the effect of insertion of passivation layer on the performance of Schottky junction solar cells using PbS NQDs with band-gap of 1.3 eV. Schottky solar cell is the simple photovoltaic device with junction between semiconducting layer and metal electrode which a significant built-in-potential is established due to the workfunction difference between two materials. Although the device without passivation layer significantly degraded in several hours, considerable enhancement of stability can be obtained by inserting the very thin LiF layer (<1 nm) as a passivation layer. In this study, LiF layer is inserted between PbS NQDs layer and metal as an interface passivation layer. From the results, we can conclude that employment of very thin LiF layer is effective to enhance the stability of Schottky junction solar cells. We believe that this passivation layer is applicable not only to the PbS NQDs based solar cell, but also the various NQDs materials in order to enhance the stability of the device.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.293-306
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• 2020

Increasing harmful effects of climate change, such as its effect on water scarcity, has led to a focus on developing effective water purification methods to obtain pure water. Additionally, rising levels of water pollution is increasing levels of environmental degradation, calling for sources of water treatment to remove contaminants. To purify water, osmotic processes across a semipermeable membrane can take place, and recent studies are showing that incorporating nanoparticles, including carbon quantum dots (CQDs), graphene carbon dots (GQDs), and graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) are making thin film composite (TFC) membranes more effective by increasing water flux while maintaining similar levels of salt rejection, increasing the hydrophilicity of the membrane surface, showing bactericidal properties, exhibiting antifouling properties to prevent accumulation of bacteria or other microorganisms from reducing the effectiveness of the membrane, and more. In the review, the synthesis process, applications, functionality, properties, and the role of several types of quantum dots are discussed in the composite membrane for water purification.