Abstract
The different size of plasmonic gold nanorods (NRs) were synthesized by the overgrown seeds method and applied to vacuum-free hybrid solar cells (VFHSCs). Tin disulfide (SnS2) quantum dots were synthesized and used as an n-type material of the device. The synthesized materials were characterized by different techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The Au (NRs) had a different of size of NR1 (Width: 4 nm; Length: 12 nm), NR2 (Width: 5 nm; Length: 16 nm), NR3 (Width: 6 nm; Length: 22 nm) which were measured using a TEM technique. The Au NR particles were incorporated into the PEDOT:PSS as a hole transport layer (HTL) of solar cells device. The effects of Au NRs size on the device performance were investigated. A thin film of Zin oxide (ZnO) was used as a buffer layer of the device. The influence of buffer layer thickness on the device’s active layer surface morphology was also studied. At the optimized condition, the highest power conversion efficiency was obtained at about ~3.7%.
Highlights
The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and X-ray diffraction (XRD) crystal planes clearly show that the phase of SnS2
The improvement of device efficiency is possible to explain by enhancement of the surface roughness and morphology of the photoactive layer, which led to improvement in the interface between the photoactive layer and the back contact of E-GaIn
The scattering effect of Au NRs with different sizes was investigated to enhance the optical properties of the device such as light scattering, light-harvesting, and the charge carrier’s transport in the device structure which leads to the enhancement in the device performance
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. There are many ideas to enhance the power conversion efficiency of SnS2 devices, such as the optimization of active layer surface morphology, controlling the size of SnS2 nanoparticles, and improving of the slight absorption using a different narrow bandgap polymer as a donor material [6,7,8]. The light absorption limitation led to the lowing of device efficiency For this reason, the enhancement of light absorption is an important research activity in the solar cells field. Several researcher groups have investigated the use of metallic plasmonic nanostructures to improve the performance of the solar cells [9,10,11,12], by adding of metal nanoparticles into the photoactive layer or hole transport layer, or both.
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