RGO induced structural and microstructural properties of P3HT in the performance and stability of polymer solar cells

With recent technological advancement, interest towards energy efficient flexible devices have grown appreciably. Graphene is one of the most renowned material due to its exclusive physical properties together with ultrahigh specific surface area and high carrier mobility of similar to 10(4) V.s. Filler modified physical properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Poly[3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl] (P3HT) blends with [6,6]-Phenyl C-61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) have been reviewed carefully in active layer of the organic solar cells. Physio-chemical properties of rGO modified P3HT blends have been analyzed using peculiar characterization tools such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV-visible (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared, Raman and photo luminescence (PL) spectroscopic techniques along with cyclic-voltammetry measurements. Open-circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.66 V, current-density (I-sc) of similar to 10.6 mA cm(-2) and efficiency of similar to 3.71% have been ascertained for the device with 1.6 wt% of rGO in the active layer. RGO induced additional exciton dissociation sites and efficient carrier transport through the conducting rGO network in the active layer is attributed for the improved performance of the solar cells. The effect of introducing ZnO electron transport layer (ETL) on the device performance as well as the stability of the solar cell is investigated.