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Performance improvement of conjugated polymer and ZnO hybrid solar cells using nickel oxide as anode buffer layer
Author(s) -
Tan H. R.,
Zhang X. W.,
Tan F. R.,
Gao H. L.,
Yin Z. G.,
Bai Y. M.,
Zhang X. L.,
Qu S. C.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201127227
Subject(s) - pedot:pss , materials science , photocurrent , open circuit voltage , anode , optoelectronics , energy conversion efficiency , chemical engineering , photoactive layer , polymer solar cell , hybrid solar cell , layer (electronics) , nanoparticle , nickel oxide , band gap , nickel , nanotechnology , voltage , electrode , chemistry , electrical engineering , metallurgy , engineering
The open‐circuit voltage of hybrid solar cells based on ZnO nanoparticles (nc‐ZnO) and conjugated polymer MDMO‐PPV increased significantly by replacing poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)‐poly(styrenesulphonate) (PEDOT:PSS) with NiO x as the anode buffer layers. The open‐circuit voltage as high as 0.828 V was obtained at high amount of ZnO (80% in weight) in the photoactive blend. Such improvement could be ascribed to the appropriate energy level of NiO x , which allows less energy loss for holes while having a sufficiently high‐conduction band minimum to function as a more efficient electron/exciton blocking layer than PEDOT:PSS. The increase of open‐circuit voltage, as well as photocurrent, resulted in a 42% improvement in power conversion efficiency. The results indicate that nickel oxide has promising potential to increase the performance of hybrid solar cells based on nc‐ZnO.