Utility of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) as efficient electron donor material in bulk-heterojunction solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency

Abstract

In the present work, we have endeavored the utilization of wet-chemically synthesized copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) as the active layer in hybrid bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The BHJs with CuO-NPs display significantly different physics from customary BHJs, and prove a noteworthy improvement in their performance. It is noted that with the addition of CuO-NPs, the morphology of the photoactive layer endures significant changes. Incorporating CuO-NPs is an additional paradigm for BHJs solar cells which enhances the photocurrent density from 9.43 mA/cm2 to 11.32 mA/cm2 and the external quantum efficiency as well. Also the power-conversion efficiency (PCE) improved from 2.85% to 3.82% without harming the open circuit voltage and the fill factor. The enhancement in PCE achieved here makes it worthy to design high-performance organic solar cells holding inorganic nanoparticles. Keywords: Bulk heterojunction, Solar cells, Copper oxide nanoparticles, Thin films, Photo current density, External quantum efficiency