Au nanocluster and PEDOT: PSS blend in the electrical performance of hybrid silicon solar cell

Poly( 3,4-ethyllenedioxythiophene):poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), a P-type organic polymer is frequently employed in the fabrication of heterojuction p-n solar cell devices due to its proper HOMO-LUMO band gap as well as its tunable conductivity. Addition of small volume percentage of organic additives such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has a positive effect on the conductivity of this polymer. In this report we describe the incorporation of gold (Au) nanocluster in the PEDOT: PSS and the effect of this blend on the power-conversion efficiency (PCE) on planer silicon (Si) hybrid heterojunction solar cell devices. Specifically, the reference sample without the aforementioned nanocluster were measured to exhibit a 6.10 % PCE value that increase to 7.55% upon the addition of the Au nanocluster. The observed increase in the PCE is attributed to the enhanced electrical conductivity of the PEDOT: PSS film due to the incorporation of the nanocluster, which is directly reflected in their improved fill factor. It is further theorized that presence of Au nanocluster in the insulating PSS layer in the PEDOT: PSS blend have a positive influence in the charge collection effectiveness of the devices produced. Considering that the Au nanoparticles involved in this research exercise had an average size of only 4nm, it is consider that plasmonic effect did not play a relevant role in the observed PCE improvement.