title: Development of highly transparent seedless ZnO nanorods engineered for inverted polymer solar cells.
abstract: This work reports on inverted polymer solar cells (IPSCs) based on highly transparent (>95%), hydrophobic, seedless ZnO nanorods (NRs) as cathode buffers with extremely enhanced electrical characteristics. The transparent NR suspension with stability for more than a year is achieved by adding a small amount of 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) acetic acid (MEA). The ability of the stable nanorod suspension to easily spin-coat is certainly an advance to the fabrication of films over large areas and to replace the conventional seeding method to grow one-dimensional nanostructures for use in optoelectronic devices. We observe a strong correlation between the photovoltaic performance and the transparency of ZnO NRs. IPSCs using poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C60 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) mixtures in the active layer and transparent (MEA-capped) ZnO NRs as cathode buffers exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 3.24% under simulated AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm(-2) illumination.
authors.affiliation: School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Chonbuk National University, 664-14, 1-ga Deokjin-dong, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea. shlee66@jbnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Swapnil B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ambade
authors.forename: Rohan B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Ambade
authors.forename: Wonjoo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Rajaram S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Mane
authors.forename: Sung Cheol
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Soo-Hyoung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee