Gold nanoparticles enhanced photocurrent in nanostructure-based bulk heterojunction solar cell

In this paper, we report a first hand study of enhanced photocurrent observed in nanostructure-based bulk heterojunction solar cell due to introduction of Au nanoparticles. The bulk heterojunction solar cell was fabricated using chemically synthesized narrow gap, IV–VI group semiconductor nanoparticles (PbS, ~3 nm), wide gap semiconductor ZnO nanowires (~1 μm length, ~50 nm diameter), and gold nanoparticles (~20 nm), by spin-coating method in N2-filled glove box. We have demonstrated that such a bulk heterojunction solar cell can be incorporated with metal nanoparticles (Au) to enhance solar device performance. Three types of solar cell devices were studied. An enhancement in the photocurrent due to introduction of Au nanoparticles was observed, compared to solar cell device without Au nanoparticles. The power conversion efficiency was also increased, possibly due to the plasmonic effects from Au nanoparticles. The fabrication procedures can be readily extended to other nanomaterial systems. Further optimization in the fabrication would be needed to realize high-efficient, stable solar cell devices.