Performance enhancement of polymer solar cells using copper oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Copper oxide (CuO) is a p-type semiconductor with a band gap energy of 1.5 eV, this is close to the ideal energy gap of 1.4 eV required for solar cells to allow good solar spectral absorption. The inherent electrical characteristics of CuO nanoparticles make them attractive candidates for improving the performance of polymer solar cells when incorporated into the active polymer layer. The UV-visible absorption spectra and external quantum efficiency of P3HT/PC70BM solar cells containing different weight percentages of CuO nanoparticles showed a clear enhancement in the photo absorption of the active layer, this increased the power conversion efficiency of the solar cells by 24% in comparison to the reference cell. The short circuit current of the reference cell was found to be 5.234 mA cm−2 and it seemed to increase to 6.484 mA cm−2 in cells containing 0.6 mg of CuO NPs; in addition, the fill factor increased from 61.15% to 68.0%, showing an enhancement of 11.2%. These observations suggest that the optimum concentration of CuO nanoparticles was 0.6 mg in the active layer. These significant findings can be applied to design high-efficiency polymer solar cells containing inorganic nanoparticles.