Plasmonic Effect of Au Nanoparticles Deposited Using Spray Technique on the Performance of Solar Cell

This chapter consists of the detailed description for the deposition of gold nanoparticles with different sizes using electric field-assisted spray process (applied voltages to the nozzle are 0 V, 500 V, and 1 kV, respectively) for investigating their performance in inverted organic solar cells (ITO/Au/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/Ag). Application of DC voltage during deposition resulted in a reduced size (35 nm as compared to 70 nm without DC voltage) of the nanoparticles (NPs) with more uniform coverage. The photovoltaic parameters of plasmonic solar cells with spray-deposited Au and ZnO layers (both at 1 kV) showed an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE). The absorption spectra and incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) curve indicate that the increased plasmonic broadband light absorption by using Au NPs provides enhancement of J _SC . A maximum PCE of 3.6% is resulted for the solar cell with high short-circuit current density of ~15 mA cm⁻².