Patent ID: 7785657

Claim:
A method of making a nanostructure layer, the method comprising: synthesizing a first, a second, and a third population of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, wherein volatile organic molecules are used as capping ligands during the synthesizing; mixing the first, second, and third populations together to form a mixture of quantum dots, wherein the mixture comprises a solvent and an excess of precursors of at least one of the first, the second and the third population of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals; depositing the mixture of quantum dots onto a lower electrode; assembling ordered quantum dot arrays on the lower electrode layer by slow precipitation of the quantum dots through controlled evaporation of the solvent from the mixture of quantum dots; removing the volatile organic molecules from the surfaces of the quantum dots; reacting the excess precursors within interstitial spaces between the assembled quantum dots in order to deposit semiconductor material between the assembled quantum dots through a thermal heating process; and, sintering the assembled quantum dots on the lower electrode together to form a contiguous low defect nanostructured film capable of absorbing light, separating charge carriers, and transporting the charge carriers to an opposite electrode.