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Silver sulphide nano-particles enhanced photo-current in polymer solar cells

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Abstract

Silver sulphide nano-particles (NPs) have been employed as light trapping mechanism in the solar absorber layer of thin film inverted organic solar cell. The synthesized nano-particle has been characterized using high-resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy (HRSEM and HRTEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The effects of \(\hbox {Ag}_{2}\hbox {S}\) NPs in the newly fabricated inverted polymer solar cell with architecture ITO/ZnO/P3HT:\(\hbox {PC}_{61}\hbox {BM}\)-\(\hbox {Ag}_{2}\hbox {S}\) /\(\hbox {MoO}_3/\hbox {AL}\) were characterized using optical and electrical properties of the solar absorber film. The optimized NPs in the photoactive layers are designed to improve photons harvesting, charge transport and reduced charge recombination, which resulted in the collection of high short circuit current density, as large as \(16.50\hbox { mAcm}^{-2}\). The measured high photocurrent and better device rectification has lead to improved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and device stability. The best power conversion efficiency recorded in this investigations was 5.15 % at the concentration of 1 % \(\hbox {Ag}_{2}\hbox {S}\) by weight. Furthermore, the solar cells exhibited extraordinary environmental stability stored in ambient environment which is attributed to the inverted device architecture.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) (Grant numbers 93562, 92786 and 85589), South Africa. The authors also appreciate the members of staff of Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit(MMU) at UKZN, for several SEM and TEM measurements.

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  1. School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa

    Mohammed S. G. Hamed, Michael A. Adedeji & Genene Tessema Mola

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Yong Zhang

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Correspondence to Genene Tessema Mola.

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Hamed, M.S.G., Adedeji, M.A., Zhang, Y. et al. Silver sulphide nano-particles enhanced photo-current in polymer solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 126, 207 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-3389-8

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