Structural and spectroscopic features of naphthol green B integrated for improved light harvesting capability of organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells

Regarding the intensified interest in photovoltaic devices for a wide range of applications, here, we exploited a promising naphthol green organic dye for designing efficient organic/inorganic heterojunction for solar cell applications. The crystal and molecular structures of the spin-coated NGB thin films were inspected using XRD and FTIR techniques, respectively. A nanostructured polycrystalline film was obtained with a crystallite size of ∼76.2 nm with a stable molecular configuration. The optical properties of the films were analyzed using spectrophotometrically measured transmission and reflection. The prepared films showed high absorption over the UV–Vis–NIR regimes with a relatively small energy gap of ∼1.42 eV and a low refractive index of ∼1.48 which increased its suitability for photosensing applicability. The photovoltaic performance of the fabricated Ag/NGB/p-Si/Al heterojunction was evaluated in detail yielding promising photovoltaic characteristics with Voc ∼0.77 V, Jsc ∼18.64 mA/cm2, and PCE ∼6.49 %.