Surface Modification of ZnO Nanorods with Small Organic Molecular Dyes for Polymer–Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

Ruankham, Pipat; Macaraig, Lea; Sagawa, Takashi; Nakazumi, Hiroyuki

doi:10.1021/jp204325y

“…25 However, earlier investigations reported non-uniform coverages or even physisorbed layers of these functional groups. 24 Several chemisorbed [27][28][29][30][31] and physisorbed molecules [32][33][34][35][36][37] on ZnO have been theoretically investigated. The chemical stability of carboxyl (-COOH) groups on ZnO has been confirmed by theoretical tight-binding 27 and first-principles calculations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

First principles investigations on the electronic structure of anchor groups on ZnO nanowires and surfaces

Domínguez

¹

,

Lorke

²

,

Schoenhalz

³

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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We report on density functional theory investigations of the electronic properties of monofunctional ligands adsorbed on ZnO-(1010) surfaces and ZnO nanowires using semi-local and hybrid exchange-correlation functionals. We consider three anchor groups, namely thiol, amino, and carboxyl groups. Our results indicate that neither the carboxyl nor the amino group modify the transport and conductivity properties of ZnO. In contrast, the modification of the ZnO surface and nanostructure with thiol leads to insertion of molecular states in the band gap, thus suggesting that functionalization with this moiety may customize the optical properties of ZnO nanomaterials.

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“…ZnO-NP is therefore must be capped to avoid the agglomeration. Small moleculesare commonly used as capping agents to avoid the agglomeration of metal oxides nanoparticles [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charge Carriers Motion in P3HT:Capped ZnO Nanoparticles Blend Films; Impact of Capping Agents

Bahtiar¹

2016

KEG

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Blend of conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) or P3HT and ZincOxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP) has been intensively used as active material for high performance hybrid solar cells. However, agglomeration of ZnO-NP hinders efficient charge carriers transfer both from P3HT to ZnO-NP and their transport within ZnO-NP which cause to low performance of solar cells. Capping of ZnO-NP is currently applied to avoid this agglomeration effect. In this study, we used three different capping agents to cap ZnO-NP, namely small semiconducting molecules squaraine, 2-naphthalene and insulating polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone. We conducted temperature dependence of photoinduced infrared absorption spectroscopy to study charge carriersmotion in the P3HT:cappedZnO nanoparticles blend films. The measurement was carried out with light irradiation of 532 nm and temperature ranging from 78 to 300 K. The spectra were analyzed by a bimolecular carrier recombination method with Arrhenius activation energy. Two parallel charge carrier recombination processes are observed, namely polarons recombination along polymer chain (intra-chain) and inter-chain polarons recombination in the P3HT-chains. At low temperatures, polarons recombine along polymer chains (intra-chain) with activation energy between 19-23 eV for all samples. However, the inter-chain polaron motion is influenced by capping agents as shown by a variation in its activation energy ranging from 28 to 58 eV.

show abstract

“…ZnO-NP is therefore must be capped to avoid the agglomeration. Small moleculesare commonly used as capping agents to avoid the agglomeration of metal oxides nanoparticles [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charge Carriers Motion in P3HT:Capped ZnO Nanoparticles Blend Films; Impact of Capping Agents

Bahtiar¹

2016

KEG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Blend of conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) or P3HT and ZincOxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP) has been intensively used as active material for high performance hybrid solar cells. However, agglomeration of ZnO-NP hinders efficient charge carriers transfer both from P3HT to ZnO-NP and their transport within ZnO-NP which cause to low performance of solar cells. Capping of ZnO-NP is currently applied to avoid this agglomeration effect. In this study, we used three different capping agents to cap ZnO-NP, namely small semiconducting molecules squaraine, 2-naphthalene and insulating polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone. We conducted temperature dependence of photoinduced infrared absorption spectroscopy to study charge carriersmotion in the P3HT:cappedZnO nanoparticles blend films. The measurement was carried out with light irradiation of 532 nm and temperature ranging from 78 to 300 K. The spectra were analyzed by a bimolecular carrier recombination method with Arrhenius activation energy. Two parallel charge carrier recombination processes are observed, namely polarons recombination along polymer chain (intra-chain) and inter-chain polarons recombination in the P3HT-chains. At low temperatures, polarons recombine along polymer chains (intra-chain) with activation energy between 19-23 eV for all samples. However, the inter-chain polaron motion is influenced by capping agents as shown by a variation in its activation energy ranging from 28 to 58 eV.

show abstract

Surface Modification of ZnO Nanorods with Small Organic Molecular Dyes for Polymer–Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

Cited by 91 publications

References 44 publications

First principles investigations on the electronic structure of anchor groups on ZnO nanowires and surfaces

First principles investigations on the electronic structure of anchor groups on ZnO nanowires and surfaces

Charge Carriers Motion in P3HT:Capped ZnO Nanoparticles Blend Films; Impact of Capping Agents

Charge Carriers Motion in P3HT:Capped ZnO Nanoparticles Blend Films; Impact of Capping Agents

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