Improving the current density Jsc and efficiency enhancement of polymer solar cells P3HT:PCBM via nanorods ZnO

Abstract

Hybrid solar cells combine organic and inorganic materials with the aim of utilizing the low cost cell production of organic photovoltaics (OPV) as well as obtaining other advantages, such as tuneable absorption spectra, from the inorganic component. Whilst hybrid solar cells have the potential to achieve high power conversion efficiencies (PCE), currently obtained efficiencies are quite low. The design of the inorganic material used as the electron acceptor in hybrid solar cells, particularly the electronic structure, is crucial to the performance of the device. Hence, this paper, nanorods ZnO have been synthesized by using zinc acetate dihydrate and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as starting materials. The calcined powders in air at 600 oC for 1 hour have been characterized by XRD, TEM and SEM. So, with nanorods ZnO as electrode in inverted polymer solar cells,the average performance of devices with open circuit voltage ,short circuit current density, fill factor,and power conversion efficiency are measured are measured as 0.61V, 8.7 mA/cm2, 0.58 and 3.01%, respectively. The results indicate that the structure of ZnO nanorod can effectively serve as an electrode for inverted polymer solar cells.

Keywords

• ZnO
• nanorod
• sol-gel
• Polymer solar cell
• Photovoltaic Organic / Inorganic