Issue 20, 2014

Development of highly transparent seedless ZnO nanorods engineered for inverted polymer solar cells

Abstract

This work reports on inverted polymer solar cells (IPSCs) based on highly transparent (>95%), hydrophobic, seedless ZnO nanorods (NRs) as cathode buffers with extremely enhanced electrical characteristics. The transparent NR suspension with stability for more than a year is achieved by adding a small amount of 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) acetic acid (MEA). The ability of the stable nanorod suspension to easily spin-coat is certainly an advance to the fabrication of films over large areas and to replace the conventional seeding method to grow one-dimensional nanostructures for use in optoelectronic devices. We observe a strong correlation between the photovoltaic performance and the transparency of ZnO NRs. IPSCs using poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C60 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) mixtures in the active layer and transparent (MEA-capped) ZnO NRs as cathode buffers exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 3.24% under simulated AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm−2 illumination.

Graphical abstract: Development of highly transparent seedless ZnO nanorods engineered for inverted polymer solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Jun 2014
Accepted
04 Aug 2014
First published
07 Aug 2014

Nanoscale, 2014,6, 12130-12141

Author version available

Development of highly transparent seedless ZnO nanorods engineered for inverted polymer solar cells

S. B. Ambade, R. B. Ambade, W. Lee, R. S. Mane, S. C. Yoon and S. Lee, Nanoscale, 2014, 6, 12130 DOI: 10.1039/C4NR03080J

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