Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We report solar cells based on highly confined nanocrystals of the ternary compound PbSxSe1-x. Crystalline, monodisperse alloyed nanocrystals are obtained using a one-pot, hot injection reaction. Rutherford back scattering and energy filtered transmission electron microscopy suggest that the S and Se anions are uniformly distributed in the alloy nanoparticles. Photovoltaic devices made using ternary nanoparticles are more efficient than either pure PbS or pure PbSe based nanocrystal devices.