Patent ID: 8889467

Claim:
A method of optimizing positions of a conduction band and a valence band and/or the energy difference between a conduction band and a valence band of a semiconductor material in a semiconductor layer of a photoactive device, and of optimizing an open circuit voltage of said device, using a resultant semiconductor compound having at least a ternary formula A x B 1-x C y , wherein one of A and B is a metalloid and the other is a metal or a metalloid, and wherein C is a non-metal or a metalloid, and wherein x is in the range of from 0.001 to 0.999 and y is in the range of from 0.1 to 10 wherein: said resultant semiconductor compound is synthesized starting from at least two precursor compounds, which are isopropoxides of the general formulae A u (iPrO) w and B s (iPrO) t , wherein said other of A and B is a metal or metalloid selected from the group comprising Zr, Ti, Hf, V, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh, Ir, Ni, Sn, Nb, Zn, Ag, Pt, Ce, Ge, As, Ga, Si, Al, Cu, CuAl, CuNi, PbZr, SrTi, BaZr, and SrCu 2 , and s, u, t and w are in the range of from 1 to 10, and (iPrO) is an isopropoxide-group.