Red-shift of the photoluminescent emission peaks of CdTe quantum dots due to the synergistic interaction with carbon quantum dot mixtures

We report the relatively large red-shift effect observed in down-shifting carbon quantum dots (CQDs) that is anticipated to have a positive impact on the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Specifically, with an excitation wavelength of 390 nm, CQDs of different sizes, exhibited down-shifted emission peaks centered around 425 nm. However, a solution comprised of a mixture of CQDs of different sizes, was observed to have an emission peak red-shifted to 515 nm. The effect could arise when larger carbon quantum dots capture the photons emitted by their smaller counterparts followed by the subsequent re-emission at longer wavelengths. Furthermore, the red-shift effect was also observed in CdTe QDs when added to a solution with the aforementioned mixture of Carbon QDs. Thus, whereas a solution solely comprised of a collection of CdTe QDs of different sizes, exhibited a down-shifted photoluminescence centered around 555 nm, the peak was observed to be further red-shifted to 580 nm when combined with the solution of CQDs of different sizes. The quantum dot characterization included crystal structure analysis as well as photon absorption and photoluminescence wavelengths. Subsequently, the synthesized QDs were dispersed in a polymeric layer of poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and incorporated on functional and previously characterized solar cells, to quantify their influence in the electrical performance of the photovoltaic structures. We discuss the synthesis and characterization of the produced Carbon and CdTe QDs, as well as the observed improvement in the power conversion efficiency of the fabricated photovoltaic devices.