A general strategy for the development of charge-separating semiconductor nanocrystal composites deployable for solar energy production is presented. We show that assembly of donor-acceptor nanocrystal domains in a single nanoparticle geometry gives rise to a photocatalytic function, while bulk-heterojunctions of donor-acceptor nanocrystal films can be used for photovoltaic energy conversion.
Diederich, G., O'Connor, T., Moroz, P., Kinder, E., Kohn, E., Perera, D., Lorek, R., Lambright, S., Imboden, M., Zamkov, M. Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids. J. Vis. Exp. (66), e4296, doi:10.3791/4296 (2012).