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Photocurrent Enhancement by Introducing Gold Nanoparticles in Nanostructures Based Heterojunction Solar Cell Device

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2017

Gen Long ,
Kenneth Sabalo ,
Natalie MacDonald ,
Michael Beattie  and
Mostafa Sadoqi
Gen Long*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439-9000, USA
Kenneth Sabalo
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439-9000, USA
Natalie MacDonald
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439-9000, USA
Michael Beattie
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439-9000, USA
Mostafa Sadoqi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439-9000, USA
*
*Corresponding author, E-mail: longg@stjohns.edu
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Abstract

In this paper, we report a first hand study of plasmon-enhanced photocurrent observed in hybrid nanostructures based heterojunction solar cell. The heterojunction solar cell was fabricated, using chemically synthesized narrow gap, IV-VI group semiconductor nanoparticles (PbS) of 3∼6nm diameter, wide gap semiconductor ZnO nanowires of 500nm∼1 μm length and ∼50nm diameter, and gold nanoparticles (∼5nm to 30nm), by spin-coating (∼20cycles) onto FTO glasses, in ambient conditions (25°C, 1atm). The synthesized nanostructures were characterized by XRD, UV-VIS absorption, SEM, TEM, solar simulator, etc. Nanostructures of variant sizes were integrated in to the heterojunction devices to study the effects on photocurrent and solar cell performance. The sizes, lengths, thickness of nanostructures were optimized to have best solar cell devices. The effects of fabrication conditions (such as growth temperature, growth time, anneal temperature, ligand treatments, in air or in N2, etc.) on device performance were also studied. The architecture of film stack, i.e., the positions of Au nanoparticles and PbS nanoparticles were also studied. It was confirmed that introducing Au nanopartiles with proper size would lead to the increase of photocurrent. The key challenges were to minimize the trap states and optimize the interface of nanostructures.

Keywords

nanostructurephotovoltaicdevices
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Advances , Volume 2 , Issue 15: Nanomaterials , 2017 , pp. 817 - 824
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2017 

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References

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