{"id":1888,"date":"2014-06-08T15:12:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-08T20:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2014-06-08T15:12:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-08T20:12:18","slug":"electron-rich-nanoparticles-advance-solar-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/electron-rich-nanoparticles-advance-solar-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Electron-rich\u2019 nanoparticles advance solar technology<img src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/canada_flag_icon_small.gif\">"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1875\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diagram-of-quantum-dot_v2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1875\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1875\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diagram-of-quantum-dot_v2.jpg\" alt=\"This quantum dot is a semiconducting nanoparticle made of lead (grey) and sulphur (yellow) and is normally vulnerable to attack by oxygen (red) which alters its properties. A new study demonstrates a way to add a protective layer of halide ions (chlorine, fluroine, etc., green) that resists attack by oxygen and allows for a new type of more efficient quantum dot solar cell. (Image credit: Zhijun Ning and Oleksandr Voznyy)\" width=\"400\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diagram-of-quantum-dot_v2.jpg 400w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diagram-of-quantum-dot_v2-300x246.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1875\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This quantum dot is a semiconducting nanoparticle made of lead (grey) and sulphur (yellow) and is normally vulnerable to attack by oxygen (red) which alters its properties. A new study demonstrates a way to add a protective layer of halide ions (chlorine, fluroine, etc., green) that resists attack by oxygen and allows for a new type of more efficient quantum dot solar cell. (Image credit: Zhijun Ning and Oleksandr Voznyy)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Researchers have created a new breed of nanoparticle that could lead to cheaper and more efficient solar cells. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Quantum dot solar cells are built using semiconducting nanoparticles that could be mixed into ink and printed in ordinary printers, greatly reducing the cost. Like traditional solar cells, they rely on two types of semiconductor materials: one that is \u2018electron-rich\u2019 (n-type) and one that is \u2018electron-poor\u2019 (p-type.) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">While making quantum dot nanoparticles that act as p-type semiconductors has been relatively easy, until now the n-type ones have tended to be unstable in air, reacting with oxygen to turn into p-types. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The paper outlines a new surface engineering strategy that allows the nanoparticles to resist air oxidation, and describes a new type of quantum dot solar cell, the \u2018inverted quantum junction.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nmat\/journal\/vaop\/ncurrent\/full\/nmat4007.html\" target=\"_blank\">Original research paper<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0published in the\u00a0journal\u00a0<em>Nature Materials<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<strong>June 8, 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Edward Sargent, University of Toronto, Ontario<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have created a new breed of nanoparticle that could lead to cheaper and more efficient solar cells. Quantum dot solar cells are built using semiconducting nanoparticles that could be mixed into ink and printed in ordinary printers, greatly reducing the cost. Like traditional solar cells, they rely on two types of semiconductor materials: one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[644,1453,50,1732,1731],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-energy","tag-engineering","tag-ontario","tag-solar-cells","tag-solar-energy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diagram-of-quantum-dot_v2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-us","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}