Quantum dot solar cells, which use semiconductor nanoparticles as the absorbing photovoltaic material in thin film solar cells are considered to be one of the third generation solar cells. Quantum dots get benefit of having a band gap that can be regulated easily by varying the size of the nanoparticles, or by selection of different materials, which allows them to absorb various segments of the solar spectrum from ultraviolet through visible to the infrared, resulting in power production during day and night. Quantum dots do not absorb light significantly and considerable amount of light is reflected back, which is one of the drawback of QD solar cells. This is due to the small thickness of absorbing photovoltaic material.

Metallic nanoparticles are also used in thin film solar cells independently for a different purpose that is light trapping, and are generally described as plasmonic solar cells. This property originates from surface plasmon resonance of a metallic nanoparticle, which scatters light and help absorb increased amount of incoming light, which is very important factor for thin film solar cells.

In this project, we aim to improve QD solar cells by combining chemically a quantum dot with a metallic nanoparticle, using organic linker moiety, and take advantage of both type of materials in thin film solar cells. We expect that higher efficiency of quantum dot solar cells can be achieved by chemically binding a quantum dot to a nanoparticle, compared to physical mixing of these two classes of nanoparticles.