ABSTRACT
A photovoltaic cell harvests the energy from sunlight and converts it directly into electrical power. Therefore, photovoltaic technology is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies, such as wind, biomass, and water. The idea of this chapter is to first describe the basic organic solar cell configurations, and then to collect arguments, where an active part of a photovoltaic device could be replaced by inorganic nanoparticles modified with organic surfactants. Inorganic photoactive materials, which we are interested in, are surface-modified inorganic clusters of different shapes, in dimensions of a few nano-meters. Similar to purely organic materials for photovoltaic applications, their thin film preparation is possible with solutions using low-cost fabrication technologies, such as spin cast, doctor blade, and ink-jet printing on various substrates. The dispersion properties of the inorganic nanoparticles in common organic solvents are determined by the chosen organic surfactants shielding the nanoparticle surface.
