Green synthesis of gold nanoparticle-decorated graphene oxides that enhance the photocurrent in polymer solar cells
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Green synthesis of gold nanoparticle–decorated graphene oxides that enhance the photocurrent in polymer solar cells Ming-Kai Chuang1, Fang-Chung Chen1,*, Chain-Shu Hsu2 1 Department of Photonics and Institute of Display, 2Department of Applied Chemistry,National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan ABSTRACT Metal nanoparticle–decorated graphene oxides are promising materials for use in various optoelectronic applications because of their unique plasmonic properties. In this paper, a simple, environmentally friendly method for the synthesis of gold nanoparticle–decorated graphene oxide that can be used to improve the efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) is reported. Here, the amino acid glycine is empolyed as an environmentally friendly reducing reagent for the reduction of gold ions in the graphene oxide solutions. Furthermore, these nanocomposites are empolyed as the anode buffer layer in OPVs to trigger surface plasmonic resonance, which improved the efficiency of the OPVs. The results indicate that such nanomaterials appear to have great potential for application in OPVs. INTRODUCTION Organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) have several attractive properties, including light weight, mechanical flexibility, short energy pay-back times, and fabrication at low cost and low temperature [1–2]. Recently, through intensive research efforts, the cell efficiencies of OPVs have advanced up to approximately 10% [2]. Insufficient absorption is a bottleneck that prevents the ability to achieve simultaneously high charge collection and high absorption efficiencies. Therefore, many light-trapping strategies, including the use of optical spacers, diffraction gratings and folded device architectures have been explored to improve the degree of light harvesting without affecting the charge collection efficiency. More recently, there has been growing interest in using the plasmonic effect of metal nanoparticles (NPs) in OPVs to enhance their light harvesting efficiencies. As-synthesized NPs can be incorporated readily into either the buffer or photoactive layer during the preparation of OPVs without the need for complicated nanofabrication tools. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect induced by the NPs can effectively enhance the device absorption efficiency and increase the level of exciton generation, resulting in higher device PCEs. As an alternative to PEDOT:PSS, Li et al. recently employed solution-processable graphene oxides (GOs) as hole buffer layers in OPVs [3]; they found that GOs could effectively suppress the leakage current and lower the hole/electron recombination rate, achieving respectable device efficiencies. Furthermore, GOs can also be considered as promising nanoscale building blocks for preparing materials featuring specific functionalities on the nanoscale. Therefore, GOs and their derivatives have been considered as a promising material platform for improving the performance of OPVs [3-4]. Many proposed methods for the synthesis of metal NPs and rGOs employ hazardous and highly
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