NANO ROD AS ELECTRON TRANSPORT LAYEIMPACT OF ZnO R ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PCBM:P3HT POLYMER SOLAR CELLS

Abstract

Effects of growth time (15 and 30 min) of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-rods that used as an electron transport layer (ETL) for polymer based solar cells were investigated. ZnO nano-rods thin films were synthesized using the hydrothermal method at 90 ºC for 15 and 30 min growth time. The PCBM:PH3 was spin coated on top of the grown ZnO nanorod layer in side glove box. Silver contacts were evaporated on the polymer, and the solar cell J-V curve was drowned. The refinement of X-Ray diffraction (XRD) pattern was used to investigate the structural properties of the nano-rods. The morphology the ZnO nano-rods were observed by a atomic force microscope (AFM), while the optical band gap energy was obtained using UV-VIS-NIR absorbance spectroscopy. The results indicate that PCBM:P3HT cells has optimal efficiency of 2.65 % and fill factor of 0.562 by using ZnO-nano rod grow at 15 min as electron transport layer.