Optically-enhanced performance of polymer solar cells with low concentration of gold nanorods in the anodic buffer layer

Abstract

Abstract:In this work, the effect of gold nanorods on the performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl-C 61 -butyric-acid-methyl-ester bulk heterojunction solar cells was investigated. Gold nanorods were introduced into the anodic buffer layer by simply blending them with the solution of poly(3,4-ethyl-enedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate). Even with a fairly low density of the nanorods, the resulting devices showed a remarkable 21.3% enhancement in the power conversion efficiency and a 13% enlargement in the short circuit current. By examining the absorbance profiles of active films made with different conditions, such enhancements can be related to the localized transverse and longitudinal plasmon resonance modes in the metallic nanoparticles. Gold nanorods helped as well in reducing the device series resistance by up to 36%, which also contributed to the global enhancement in the efficiency.

Adsorption of Gold on Iridium

“…(Φ sat) at Ts = 556 K is found to be 5.10 eV in agreement with those values found by the others [24]- [29]. This value lies close to that obtained by Huber [22] (5.22 eV) using Contact Potential Difference, Jones et al, [20], and Jones et al [21] in their studies of gold adsorption on tungsten obtained values of 5.23 eV and 5.20 eV respectively, but our results do not agree with the values obtained by Frederisken et al [34] and Salisbury et al [35].…”

“…Our results of (Φ sat) of gold adsorption on iridium total emitter surface are shown to be in agreement with the results of the other workers [20] [21] [22] [23]. A value of 5.1 eV was observed by [24]- [29], while Farrer et al [30] and Trouwborst et al [31] observed that the value of the work function of gold was less than 5.1 eV which is less than our value. Abid et al [32] observed a value of 5.2 eV which is in the range of our values.…”

Gold Nanorods Incorporated Cathode for Better Performance of Polymer Solar Cells

“…Besides, the longitudinal absorption peak of the rods is close to the IR absorption edge of the photoactive film. Hence, the intensified EM field around Au NRs would increase the absorption of the photoactive film near the plasmon peaks of the rods, in which an enhancement in the film absorption near the IR region is expected [14,18].…”

“…Such resonance allows MNPs to absorb light in the visible region of the spectra, leading to intensification, by a factor of 100, in the electromagnetic (EM) field surrounding them [5]. Metallic nanoparticles are widely used in thin-film solar cells to enhance their absorption of light by utilizing the far-field and near-field effect associated with their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…This motivated the use of the rod shape of gold nanoparticles in the current work. In previous works we investigated the effect of inserting gold nanorods (Au NRs) into P3HT:PCBM BHJ-OSCs by depositing them on the anodic layer, indium tin oxide (ITO) 2 Journal of Nanomaterials [17], or by mixing them either with the anodic buffer layer [14] or the photoactive one [18].…”