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.

Copper oxide (CuO) is a p-type semiconductor having a band gap energy of 1.5 eV, which 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 (PSCs) when incorporated in the active polymer layer. The incorporation of CuO nanoparticles in P3HT/PC70BM solar cells at the optimum concentration yields 40.7% improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE). The CuO nanoparticles in the size range of 100-150 nm have an effective average band gap of 2.07 eV. In addition, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses show improvement in P3HT crystallinity, and surface analysis by atomic force microscope (AFM) shows an increase in surface roughness of the PSCs. The key factors namely photo-absorption, exciton diffusion, dissociation, charge transport, and charge collection inside the PSCs which affect the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and PCE of these cells are analyzed.

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