Growth of ZnO Nanostructures at Different Reactant Concentrations for Inverted Organic Solar Cell

2012 ◽  
Vol 545 ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
Chi Chin Yap ◽  
Ainu Abu Bakar ◽  
Muhammad Yahaya ◽  
Muhamad Mat Salleh

The effects of reactant concentration on the growth of ZnO nanostructures and the photovoltaic performance of inverted organic solar cells based on a blend of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEHPPV) as donor and (6,6)-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as acceptor with a structure of FTO/ZnO nanostructures/MEHPPV:PCBM/Ag utilizing ZnO nanostructures as electron collecting layer and silver as a hole collecting electrode were investigated. The ZnO preparation consisted of ZnO nanoparticles seed layer coating and followed by ZnO nanostructures growth in equimolar aqueous solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate (0.02-0.08 M) and hexamethylenetetramine (0.02-0.08 M). ZnO nanorods having diameter of 50-70 nm and with length up to 120 nm were obtained at reactant concentration of 0.04 M. The ZnO nanorods started to merge with each other and formed irregular nanostructures vertically on the substrates at higher reactant concentrations of 0.06 M and 0.08 M. The solar cell with ZnO nanorods prepared at reactant concentration of 0.04 M provided the largest interface area between polymer active layer and ZnO, resulting in the highest power conversion efficiency of 0.053 % with short circuit current density of 0.43 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage of 0.42 V and fill factor of 29 %.

NANO ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (07) ◽  
pp. 1650077 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Koteeswara Reddy ◽  
M. Devika ◽  
K. R. Gunasekhar ◽  
E. S. R. Gopal

The development of nontoxic and cost-effective solar cell devices is one of the challenging tasks even now. With this objective, solar cell devices using tin mono sulfide (SnS) thin films and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures with a superstrate configuration of ITO/ZnO film/ZnO nanorods/SnS film/Zn have been fabricated and their photovoltaic properties have been investigated. Vertically aligned ZnO nanostructures were grown on indium doped tin oxide substrate by chemical solution method and then, SnS thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation method. A typical solar cell device exhibited significant light conversion efficiency with an open circuit voltage and short circuit current of 350[Formula: see text]mV and 5.14[Formula: see text]mA, respectively.


2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 20901
Author(s):  
Abdul Kuddus ◽  
Md. Ferdous Rahman ◽  
Jaker Hossain ◽  
Abu Bakar Md. Ismail

This article presents the role of Bi-layer anti-reflection coating (ARC) of TiO2/ZnO and back surface field (BSF) of V2O5 for improving the photovoltaic performance of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) based heterojunction solar cells (HJSCs). The simulation was performed at different concentrations, thickness, defect densities of each active materials and working temperatures to optimize the most excellent structure and working conditions for achieving the highest cell performance using obtained optical and electrical parameters value from the experimental investigation on spin-coated CdS, CdTe, ZnO, TiO2 and V2O5 thin films deposited on the glass substrate. The simulation results reveal that the designed CdS/CdTe based heterojunction cell offers the highest efficiency, η of ∼25% with an enhanced open-circuit voltage, Voc of 0.811 V, short circuit current density, Jsc of 38.51 mA cm−2, fill factor, FF of 80% with bi-layer ARC and BSF. Moreover, it appears that the TiO2/ZnO bi-layer ARC, as well as ETL and V2O5 as BSF, could be highly promising materials of choice for CdS/CdTe based heterojunction solar cell.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Chun Chen ◽  
Chao-Ying Yu ◽  
Chih-Ping Chen ◽  
Shu-Hua Chan ◽  
Ching Ting

A novel soluble conjugated polymers, P2, with coplanar thiophene-phenylene-thiophene unit is designed and synthesized as suitable active material used in tandem cells to compensate the poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/[6,6]-phenyl-C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) bulk-heterojunction cell in this paper. P2 polymer bears advantages in both low optical bandgap (1.7 eV) and high hole mobility properties (3.4×10−3 cm2/V-s from field-effect transistor measurement). Furthermore, the electrochemical studies of P2 indicate desirable highest occupied molecular orbital/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO/LUMO) band structure that enables a high open circuit voltage when pairing with PCBM acceptor. The best power conversion efficiency of this polymer solar cell thus far based on P2/PC71BM system with a weight ratio of 1:3 reached 4.4% with a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 10.2 mA/cm2, an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.81 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.53 under air mass (AM) 1.5 G (100 mW/cm2). The preliminary data of the tandem cell with indium tin oxide (ITO) glass/PEDOT:PSS/P2:PC71BM/TiOx/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC71BM/TiOx/Al configuration has reached Jsc of 6.2 mA/cm2, Voc of 1.33 V, FF of 0.56 and an overall efficiency of 4.6% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW/cm2).


2009 ◽  
Vol 1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewei Zhao ◽  
Xiao Wei Sun ◽  
Lin Ke ◽  
Swee Tiam Tan

AbstractWe present an efficient polymer-small molecule triple-tandem organic solar cell (OSC), consisting of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)-propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)C61 (PCBM) bulk heterojunction as the first and second cells, and small molecules copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and fullerene (C60) as the third cell on top. These sub-cells are connected by an intermediate layer of Al(1 nm)/MoO3(15 nm), which appears to be highly transparent, structurally smooth, and electrically functional. Compared to our previous all polymer triple-tandem organic solar cells (2.03%), this polymer-small molecule triple-tandem organic solar cell achieves an improved power conversion efficiency of 2.18% with a short-circuit current density (Jsc) = 3.02 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) = 1.51 V, and fill factor (FF) = 47.7% under simulated solar irradiation of 100 mW/cm2 (AM1.5G), which can be attributed to the increased photocurrent generation in the third cell since the third cell has the complementary absorption with two bottom cells despite a slightly reduced Voc.


2012 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 1260004 ◽  
Author(s):  
GENTIAN YUE ◽  
JIHUAI WU ◽  
YUNFANG HUANG ◽  
YAOMING XIAOMING XIAO ◽  
ZHANG LAN

An iodine/iodide-free and polymer heterojunction-sensitized hybrid solar cell is fabricated by using 6,6-phenyl- C61 -butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as electronic acceptor, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as donor and TiO2 film as substrate. The PCBM–P3HT heterojunction can harvest ultraviolet-visible light, transport charge carriers, replacing the dyes and electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cell. The cell with a PCBM/P3HT ratio of 1:2 shows a short circuit current of 5.47 mA⋅cm-2, an open circuit voltage of 0.849 V, a fill factor of 0.640 and a light-to-electric energy conversion efficiency of 2.97% under a simulated solar light irradiation of 100 mW⋅cm-2.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miron Krassas ◽  
Christos Polyzoidis ◽  
Pavlos Tzourmpakis ◽  
Dimitriοs M. Kosmidis ◽  
George Viskadouros ◽  
...  

A conjugated, ladder-type multi-fused ring 4,7-dithienbenzothiadiazole:thiophene derivative, named as compound ‘T’, was for the first time incorporated, within the PTB7:PC71BM photoactive layer for inverted ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs) realization. The effective energy level offset caused by compound T between the polymeric donor and fullerene acceptor materials, as well as its resulting potential as electron cascade material contribute to an enhanced exciton dissociation, electron transfer facilitator and thus improved overall photovoltaic performance. The engineering optimization of the inverted TOSC, ITO/PFN/PTB7:Compound T(5% v/v):PC71BM/MoO3/Al, resulted in an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.34%, with a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 16.75 mA cm−2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.74 V and a fill factor (FF) of 68.1%, under AM1.5G illumination. This photovoltaic performance was improved by approximately 12% with respect to the control binary device.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850164 ◽  
Author(s):  
SWATI S. KULKARNI ◽  
S. S. HUSSAINI ◽  
GAJANAN A. BODKHE ◽  
MAHENDRA D. SHIRSAT

Titanium dioxide (TiO[Formula: see text] nanoparticles have been synthesized by the cost effective Sol–Gel technique. Characteristics of TiO2 nanoparticles were investigated by X-ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. The Eosin Y dye and dye extracted from Hibiscus tea have been successfully used in fabrication of the dye sensitized solar cell. The photovoltaic performance of the dye sensitized solar cell indicates that the short circuit photo current, open circuit voltage and efficiency of the DSSC using Eosin Y dye is 10 times more compared to the DSSC using the Hibiscus dye.


2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (06) ◽  
pp. 1550072
Author(s):  
SUDIP ADHIKARI ◽  
HIDEO UCHIDA ◽  
MASAYOSHI UMENO

In this paper, composite carbon nanotubes (C-CNTs); single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) are synthesized using an ultrasonic nebulizer in a large quartz tube for photovoltaic device fabrication in poly-3-octyl-thiophene (P3OT)/ n - Si heterojunction solar cells. We found that the device fabricated with C-CNTs shows much better photovoltaic performance than that of a device without C-CNTs. The device with C-CNTs shows open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.454 V, a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 12.792 mA/cm2, fill factor (FF) of 0.361 and power conversion efficiency of 2.098 %. Here, we proposed that SWCNTs and MWCNTs provide efficient percolation paths for both electron and hole transportation to opposite electrodes and leading to the suppression of charge carrier recombination, thereby increasing the photovoltaic device performance.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurniawan Foe ◽  
Gon Namkoong ◽  
Matthew Samson ◽  
Enas M. Younes ◽  
Ilho Nam ◽  
...  

We fabricated a poly[3-hexylthiophene] (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) organic photovoltaic cells (OPCs) using TiOxinterfacial layer. We performed optimization processes for P3HT : PC61BM with the TiOxlayer. We found that a solution based TiOxlayer coated at a spin speed of 3000 rpm improved the photon absorption of the active layer. An optimized TiOxlayer was also used as the interfacial layer to investigate the stability of P3HT : PC61BM OPC. After 70 days of storage, we observed that the short-circuit current density (JSC) dropped by 16.2%, fill factor (FF) dropped by 10.6%, and power conversion efficiency (PCE) dropped approximately by 25%, while the open-circuit voltage (VOC) remained relatively stable. We found that a solution based TiOxlayer synthesized using a sol-gel chemistry method was very effective in protecting the active layer from degradation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 925 ◽  
pp. 580-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Syafiq Alias ◽  
Sharul Ashikin Kamaruddin ◽  
Che Ani Norhidayah ◽  
Nurulnadia Sarip ◽  
Nayan Nafarizal ◽  
...  

In this paper, we explore the characteristics of bulk heterojunction solar cell based on poly (3-hexyl thiophene) [P3HT] and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester [PCBM] by introducing a buffer layer with device configuration of ITO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/Au. Nanostructured ZnO with individual diameter around 20-50 nm was used as the buffer layer and its effects on the short circuit current density, Jsc and open circuit voltage, Voc were investigated. It was found that, the electrical characteristic of the organic solar cell was obviously changed by introducing the buffer layer. Solar cell characteristic with Voc of 0.3939 V was obtained but the Jsc was very small. The surface topology of the P3HT:PCBM was investigated using an atomic force microscopy (AFM). ZnO nanoparticles were observed using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and the electrical properties of the solar cell was measured using a solar simulator with a current – voltage (I-V) measurement system.


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