Abstract
Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells were fabricated using a trimetallic nanocomposite (Ag : Zn : Ni) in the photoactive layer. The incorporation of the nanocomposite was limited to the concentrations of 4% and 6% by volume into poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 6-6-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blend solar absorber. The newly fabricated devices were investigated in terms of the optical, electrical and morphological properties of the photoactive medium. The power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of the solar cells were found to be increased by 57% and 84% due to improved harvesting of solar radiation due to the occurrence of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects of the metal nanocomposite. Silver : zinc : nickel (Ag : Zn : Ni) tri-metallic nanocomposites were synthesized using a chemical reduction method from silver, zinc and nickel nitrates. The nanocomposites were characterized in terms of morphology, elemental composition and crystallinity which are extensively discussed in the manuscript.
Highlights
The global energy demand for more and sustainable energy sources has increasingly led researchers to shi their attention towards clean and renewable energy sources.[1,2,3] Solar energy is one of the most abundant energy sources that can be converted into electrical energy by means of solar cells
Organic photovoltaic cells have been fabricated in a number of designs to be able to improve the power conversion efficiencies (PCE) and environment stabilities of the devices
The results show that the zero- eld mobility of the charges for the doped device was found to be one order of magnitude higher than that of the device with the pristine photoactive medium (Table 2)
Summary
The global energy demand for more and sustainable energy sources has increasingly led researchers to shi their attention towards clean and renewable energy sources.[1,2,3] Solar energy is one of the most abundant energy sources that can be converted into electrical energy by means of solar cells. The distribution of interfacial domains, with sizes comparable to the exciton diffusion length in the polymer medium, would create better chances for exciton dissociation into free charge carriers.[10] Research into the incorporation of metal and/or semiconducting nanocomposites in organic photovoltaic cells has found several advantages because of their positive contributions in harvesting solar radiation. This includes but not limited to local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects and assistance in the charge transport processes in the medium.[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]
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