Effect of solvents on performance of Alq3/ZnO solar cells: A theoretical approach

Abstract

Successfully, theoretical equations were established to study the effect of solvent polarities on the electron current density, fill factor and efficiencies of Tris (8-hydroxy) quinoline aluminum (Alq3)/ ZnO solar cells. Three different solvents studied in this theoretical works, namely 1-propanol, ethanol and acetonitrile. The quantum model of transition energy in donor–acceptor system was used to derive a current formula. After that, it has been used to calculate the fill factor and the efficiency of the solar cell. The calculations indicated that the efficiency of the solar cell is influenced by the polarity of solvents. The best performance was for the solar cell based on acetonitrile as a solvent with electron current density of (5.078-12.331) mA/cm2between (1-6) V. In addition, the highest efficiency calculated for the (Alq3)/ ZnO solar cell was 2.593% which corresponds to the highest current density. However, the calculated fill-factor values were significantly unchanged with the changing of the current density. Interestingly, the measured values are in a good agreement with previously reported experimental values.

Keywords

• Quantum model
• Theoretical solar cell
• Fill factor