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Surface modification of ZnO nanorods with CdS quantum dots for application in inverted organic solar cells: effect of deposition duration

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Abstract

Incorporating cadmium sulfide quantum dots (CdS QDs) onto ZnO nanorod (ZNRs) has been investigated to be an efficient approach to enhance the photovoltaic performance of the inverted organic solar cell (IOSC) devices based on ZNRs/poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). To synthesize CdS/ZNRs, different durations of deposition per cycle from 1 to 9 min were used to deposit CdS via SILAR technique onto ZNRs surface grown via hydrothermal method at low temperature on FTO substrate. In typical procedures, P3HT as donor polymer were spun-coating onto CdS/ZNRs to fabricate IOSC devices, followed by Ag deposition as anode by magnetron sputtering technique. Incorporation of CdS QDs has modified the morphological, structural, and optical properties of ZNRs. Incorporation of CdS QDs onto ZNRs also led to higher open circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current density (Jsc) of optimum ZNRs/CdS QDs devices due to the increased interfacial area between ZNRs and P3HT for more efficient exciton dissociation, reduced interfacial charge carrier recombination as a result of lower number of oxygen defects which act as electron traps in ZnO and prolonged carrier recombination lifetime. Therefore, the ZNRs/CdS QDs/P3HT device exhibited threefold higher PCE (0.55%) at 5 min in comparison to pristine ZNR constructed device (0.16%). Overall, our study highlights the potential of ZNRs/CdS QDs to be excellent electron acceptors for high efficiency hybrid optoelectronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciatively acknowledge the financial support for this study from the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) of Project No. 01-02-13-1345FR. The authors might want to thank the help managed by School of Applied Physics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in various characterizations of samples all through this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Hind Fadhil Oleiwi & Azmi Zakaria

  2. Departments of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Azmi Zakaria & Zainal Abidin Talib

  3. School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Chi Chin Yap, Sin Tee Tan, Hock Beng Lee, Chun Hui Tan & Abdelelah Alshanableh

  4. Departments of Flexible and Printable Electronics, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 561-756, Republic of Korea

    Riski Titian Ginting

  5. Departments of Physics, Faculty of Science for Women, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

    Hind Fadhil Oleiwi

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  1. Hind Fadhil Oleiwi
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Correspondence to Azmi Zakaria or Chi Chin Yap.

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Oleiwi, H.F., Zakaria, A., Yap, C.C. et al. Surface modification of ZnO nanorods with CdS quantum dots for application in inverted organic solar cells: effect of deposition duration. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 2601–2609 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-8185-7

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