Photovoltaic (PV) devices usually exploit mid-range band-gap semiconductors which absorb in the visible range of the solar spectrum. However, much energy is lost in the IR and near-IR range. Efficient PV devices require fine tuning of the energy levels at interfaces between the absorber and the electrodes but IR absorbers possess a small band-gap, such tuning is difficult using common electrodes. 

This seminar/webinar has introduced  the Wet-chemistry deposition of  semiconductor nanostructures based on bulk-like PbS deposited by facile, cheap, and direct chemical bath deposition, with the good electronic properties of ZnO nanowire electrodes. The speech also proposed   CuSCN as a solid hole conductor replacing the liquid electrolyte  to stabilize the electrical/morphological properties of nanowire arrays grown electrochemically.

The ability to harvest electrons from a narrow band-gap semiconductor deposited on a large surface-area electrode using wet chemistry can advance the field towards high efficiency, low cost IR and near-IR optoelectronic devices