Creation of Au nanoparticles decorated MoO3 nanorods using CoSP and the application as hole transport layer (HTL) in plasmonic-enhanced organic photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Surfactant free MoO3 nanorods (50 nm–5 µm long and 50–300 nm diameter) with Au nanoparticles with varying nanorod dimensions and Au fraction have been synthesized in-situ by using inexpensive continuous spray pyrolysis (CoSP) technique. In-situ grown gold nanoparticles (∼10–20 nm) with MoO3 nanorods (Au/MoO3) were obtained which proved useful in getting the additional effect due to plasmonics. The CoSP- synthesized Au/MoO3 nanorods have been used as anode buffer layers in organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs). The resulting devices exhibit a remarkable enhancement in power conversion efficiency (from 2.22% to 3.71%) when Au/MoO3 nanorods were used in the device which can be attributed to the strong localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption.