Application of Zinc Oxide in Hybrid Solar Cells Using a P3HT and P3OT Polymer Junction as Charge Carrier

Abstract

Hybrid solar cells show an increasing number in researches due to its low cost and easy of production. They are composed by and organic material and a semiconductor oxide. The aim of this paper was to synthesis and characterize zinc oxide by coprecipitation and apply it in a hybrid solar cell that uses a P3HT/P3OT copolymer as charge carrier. The cell was assembled in "sandwich" form using FTO/ZnO/P3HT-P3OT as work electrode, (Pt/FTO) as conter electrode and I/I-3 redox couple as electrolyte. Through the X-ray diffractogram the formation of a single ZnO wutzite hexagonal phase was observed. The morphology obtained for the oxide was spherical. The results of photochronoamperometry showed current density values of jP3HT/P3OT =0.55 mA.cm^-2 for the cell in the presence of the copolymer and the curve jxV showed an efficiency of 0.16% for the studied cell, demonstrating that the polymer was a satisfactory sensitizer.

Keywords:
photovoltaic effect; polymeric photosensitizer; coprecipitation