Organic and hybrid solar cells have received attention due to their potential to provide environmentally friendly and cheap source of energy [1]. Making use of nanostructures in such devices looks attractive as they provide percolative pathways for charge carriers by quantum confinement, helping in the improvement of the efficiency of the devices [2]. In this work the use of different ZnO nanostructures has been studied to assess the effect of morphology and surface passivation on the performance of photovoltaic devices. ZnO nanostructures (nanoparticles, nanowires and nanofibers) have been produced by different techniques, were functionalized by pyrene-1-carboxylic acid and characterized by XRD, UV-Visible spectroscopy and SEM. ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO nanowires were prepared by wet chemical synthesis and thermal decomposition of zinc acetate dihydrate respectively. ZnO nanofibers were prepared by calcination of polyvinyl alcohol/zinc acetate composite nanofiber, which had been produced by the electrospinning process. The photovoltaic devices have been prepared in two different configurations - glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS/photoactive layer/Al and glass/ITO/ZnO/photoactive layer/ PEDOT:PSS/Ag paste. The PEDOT:PSS and the photoactive layers were deposited by spin coating of the suspension of PEDOT:PSS in water and the suspension of the ZnO nanostructures in the poly-3-hexylthiophene solution respectively. The photovoltaic cells were finally characterized by current-voltage characteristics measurement under simulated standard illumination conditions.

References:

1. Gunes, S., H. Neugebauer, and N.S. Sariciftci, Conjugated Polymer-Based Organic Solar Cells. Chem. Rev., 2007. 107: p. 1324-1338.

2. Olson, D.C., et al., Hybrid photovoltaic devices of polymer and ZnO nanofiber composites. Thin Solid Films, 2006. 496 p. 26 -29.

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1. Microwave response of TCO coated glass analysed via transmission and reflectivity measurements