Abstract
Among various photovoltaic devices, the poly 3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene:poly styrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based hybrid solar cell is getting momentum for the next generation solar cell. Although, the power-conversion efficiency of the PEDOT:PSS–SiNW hybrid solar cell has already been reported above 13% by many researchers, it is still at a primitive stage and requires comprehensive research and developments. When SiNWs interact with conjugate polymer PEDOT:PSS, the various aspects of SiNW array are required to optimize for high efficiency hybrid solar cell. Therefore, the designing of silicon nanowire (SiNW) array is a crucial aspect for an efficient PEDOT:PSS–SiNW hybrid solar cell, where PEDOT:PSS plays a role as a conductor with an transparent optical window just-like as metal-semiconductor Schottky solar cell. This short review mainly focuses on the current research trends for the general, electrical, optical and photovoltaic design issues associated with SiNW array for PEDOT:PSS–SiNW hybrid solar cells. The foremost features including the morphology, surface traps, doping of SiNW, which limit the efficiency of the PEDOT:PSS–SiNW hybrid solar cell, will be addressed and reviewed. Finally, the SiNW design issues for boosting up the fill-factor, short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage will be highlighted and discussed.
Highlights
We are living in the era of industrialization, which requires s huge amount of energy and any technological advancement raises our standard of living and requires more energy
The foremost features including the morphology, surface traps, doping of silicon nanowire (SiNW), which limit the efficiency of the PEDOT:PSS–SiNW hybrid solar cell, will be addressed and reviewed
The agglomeration of SiNWs is a serious problem for high efficiency PEDOT:PSS–SiNW solar cells and may create some other limiting issues such as (i) PEDOT:PSS does not penetrate into the bottom of SiNWs inside the bundle and a void of insulating vacuum or entrapped air is created to deteriorate the charge transport process; (ii) degrades the electrical and optical properties of
Summary
We are living in the era of industrialization, which requires s huge amount of energy and any technological advancement raises our standard of living and requires more energy. Different alternative cheap solutions are being proposed, among which organic/polymer solar cells are considered by some researchers as one the most promising due to many other advantages such as low cost, light weight, flexible, tune-able and favor for large area applications. Many researchers believe that the incorporation of nanowires inside polymer can provide efficient interfaces for the dissociation of excitons for polymer-nanowire hybrid solar cell [24,25,26]. For the fabrication of polymer–SiNW hybrid-solar cell the solution of polymer (p-type) is generally spin coated over the top of n-type SiNW array at room temperature. Like the history of other advanced photovoltaic technologies, researchers are paying more attention to improve the efficiency of the hybrid solar cell at this initial stage. It is very difficult to compare the cost and lifetime of polymer–SiNW hybrid solar cell with conventional Si solar cell
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