Chalcogenide nanostructures for energy conversion

Abstract

In Metal chalcogenide hierarchical nanostructures as energy conversion devices were studied in this chapter. Cd-chalcogenide nanostructures were chosen as sample study due to their unique properties as energy converter. In the first step, different methods were introduced to grow this type of nanostructures. It was discussed three low cost-effective methods to grow the Cd-chalcogenide nanostructures such as thermal evaporation (chemical and physical vapor depositions), chemical bath deposition, and electrochemical methods. However, it was observed that samples were grown by a pulsed laser deposition method as a complex method. In addition, effects of growth conditions on morphology and optical properties of the nanostructures were investigated. In the second step, the fundamentals of solar energy conversion were described. Furthermore, quantum physics of semi- conductor solar cells was studied. Finally, the Cd-chalcogenide nanostructures were introduced as solar energy conversion and important factors that can affect the efficiency of this type of solar cells were introduced.