Issue 7, 2020

Enhancement of organic solar cell performance by incorporating gold quantum dots (AuQDs) on a plasmonic grating

Abstract

The incorporation of metallic nanoobjects into devices allows to increase light harvesting, which increases the device performance. In this study, we used a combination of gold quantum dots and grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance (GCSPR) to improve the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) with a poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT):[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) photoactive layer. Gold quantum dots with a green fluorescent color (green-AuQD) were loaded into a hole transport layer (HTL) aiming to harvest photons in the UV region and emit visible light into the neighboring photoactive layer. Meanwhile, plasmonic grating structures, which were created on the photoactive layer surfaces via the nanoimprinting technique, provided an enhancement effect through light scattering and GCSPR. Thus, an excellent enhancement of OSC efficiency with a significant increase in short circuit photocurrent (JSC) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) in comparison to that of the reference cell was achieved. The fabricated device provides a JSC value as high as 8.41 mA cm−2 (a 14.11% enhancement) and a PCE value of 3.91% (a 19.57% enhancement). The systematic study clearly reveals that the remarkable enhancement of OSC efficiency is achieved by incorporating both AuQD and plasmonic grating.

Graphical abstract: Enhancement of organic solar cell performance by incorporating gold quantum dots (AuQDs) on a plasmonic grating

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 févr. 2020
Accepted
07 mai 2020
First published
08 juin 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2020,2, 2950-2957

Enhancement of organic solar cell performance by incorporating gold quantum dots (AuQDs) on a plasmonic grating

S. Phetsang, S. Nootchanat, C. Lertvachirapaiboon, R. Ishikawa, K. Shinbo, K. Kato, P. Mungkornasawakul, K. Ounnunkad and A. Baba, Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2, 2950 DOI: 10.1039/D0NA00169D

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