Polymer Solar Cells Using Au-Incorporated V2Ox as the Hole Transport Layer

This study investigates the feasibility of adding gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) to vanadium oxide (V2Ox) serving the hole transport layer (HTL) material oin polymer solar cells to enhance cell performance. The first part of this study used Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as a baseline and optimized the parameters of this HTL material. Then, the V2Ox was substituted as the HTL material, and its parameters were optimized again. The second part involved incorporating an aqueous solution of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) with an average particle size of approximately 80 nm into V2Ox. Due to the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) by Au-NPs, the addition of Au-NPs to the V2Ox layer can enhance the absorption efficiency of the P3HT:PCBM blended film. Therefore, compared with V2Ox alone, the solar cells with Au-NPs incorporated into the V2O5 hole transport layer demonstrate improved power conversion efficiency (PCE).