Various Solvents’ Effect on the Performance of P3HT:ZnONPs:PC70BM Solar Cell

Abstract Hybrid organic-inorganic solar cells of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) have garnered extensive focus as alternate to all-organic photovoltaics due to their remarkable benefits in integrating organic materials’ solution-processability and flexibility with the environmental stability of inorganic semiconductors and high charge mobility. This study describes the development of efficient and air-stable hybrid organic-inorganic BHJ solar cells with broad-spectrum sensitivity supported by mixtures of phenyl-C 71 -butyric acid methyl ester (PC 70 BM) and poly 3-hexylthiophene with zinc oxide (P3HT: ZnONPs). The solvents (chlorobenzene, chlorobenzene, and chloroform and mixed CF/CB, CF/DCB) used to deposit the hybrid P3HT: ZnONPs BHJ active layer has a significant effect on the film shape and, therefore, on the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells generated as a result. The characterization techniques used for the film morphology, including X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging, and external quantum efficiency (EQE) studies on the devices. It is interesting to note that the efficiency of the devices significantly improves when a specific solvent combination of (CB:CF) is utilized. This suggests the importance of solvent selection in optimizing the performance of the devices. The best property was obtained in the active layer by using chlorobenzene (CB) for the P3HT and dichlorobenzene (DCB) for the PCBM. The improvement in the efficiency with regard to a device with CB:CF was more considerable compared to CF, CB and CB: DCB. With different solvent, a solar cell upon (CB:CF) provides PCE (i.e., Power Conversion Efficiency) of 4.1%, dissimilar to 3.92% for (CB: DCB), 3.9% for (CB) and 3:6% for (CB) devices.