Preparation of ZnO nanoparticles for blend of P3HT:ZnO nanoparticles:PCBM thin film and its charge carrier dynamics characterization

Abstract

Recently, many researchers have paid attention to develop active material of solar cell which plays an important role in absorbing solar spectrum. This active material should have an ability to transfer charge carrier resulted from the absorption of solar spectrum. The hybrid organic-inorganic solar cell has been developed due to the combining advantages between organic material Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerene PCBM with inorganic material ZnO nanoparticles. The investigation of charge carrier dynamics in blend P3HT:ZnO nanoparticles:PCBM film as an active material of solar cell devices is an important things to enhance the solar cell performance. The charge carrier dynamics properties is needed to control the morphology of active material to produce an efficient and effective charge dissociation. In this study we synthezed the ZnO nanoparticles by using sol-gel methods. The size of nanoparticles resulted from the reflux process of zinc acetate in methanol by the presence of catalist sodium hydroxide is around 10 nm. Photo-induced Infra-red (PI-IR) Absorption Spectroscopy was used to investigate the charge carrier dynamics of P3HT:ZnO nanoparticles:PCBM thin film. Measurement of PI-IR Absorption Spectroscopy has been carried out under variation of temperature conditions from 78 to 300 K, using a 532-nm laser as a light source. At low temperature, the charge carrier recombination was performed by positive polarons along the intrachain of P3HT while at high temperature the charge carrier recombination was attributed to positive polarons along the interchain of P3HT.