Abstract
Bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricated by blending semiconducting cadmium selenide nanoparticles with various capping ligands and regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene). The effects of surface ligand modification of CdSe nanoparticles and thermal treatment of fabricated cells on the device performance were investigated. It was found that surface ligands of nanoparticles could affect the device performance by increasing the charge carrier separation at the nanoparticle/polymer interface by quenching photoluminescence. Thermal treatment of fabricated cell structure at 140 °C was found to be optimal for device performance, resulting in a maximum power conversion efficiency of 1.17% under AM1.5G simulated solar irradiation.