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Dopamine-Induced Growth of Au and Ag Nanoparticles on ITO Substrate and Their Application in PCPDTBT-Based Polymer Solar Cell

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Abstract

The direct attachment and growth of gold or silver nanoparticles (NPs) on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces was demonstrated using a simple and inexpensive successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method by chemical reduction of the precursor metal salts with dopamine aqueous solution. Ag NPs on ITO substrate were approximately spherical with an average particle size of about 57 nm, but had a wide particle size distribution. Compared with Ag NPs, under the same 10 SILAR cycles, Au NPs have higher density packing and smaller average particle size of about 36 nm. XRD characterization and surface chemistry analysis confirmed the formation of Ag and Au NPs on ITO substrate with small amounts of dopamine-quinone adsorbed on the surface of them. Although Au NPs showed characteristic plasmon absorption, this did not result in performance enhancement in solar cell with the structure of ITO/ZnO/PCPDTBT:[6,6]-phenyl C71/MoO3/Ag because of the energy level mismatch between ZnO and dopamine molecules adsorbed on the surface of metal NPs.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11475017) and CSC Scholarship (201407095076). This program has also been supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Responsibility for the views, information, or advice expressed herein is not accepted by the Australian Government. We are also grateful to all of our OPV group members for the useful discussions and support during this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, PR China

    Luting Yan

  2. School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

    Kah Howe Chan & Ashraf Uddin

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  1. Luting Yan
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  2. Kah Howe Chan
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  3. Ashraf Uddin
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Correspondence to Luting Yan.

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Yan, L., Chan, K.H. & Uddin, A. Dopamine-Induced Growth of Au and Ag Nanoparticles on ITO Substrate and Their Application in PCPDTBT-Based Polymer Solar Cell. Plasmonics 12, 345–351 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-016-0270-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-016-0270-x

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