Effect of Ag Nanowire/ZnO Core Shell Photoelectrodes in Sb2S3-Based Hybrid Solar Cells

Abstract

We adopted Ag nanowire (NW)/ZnO core–shell photoelectrodes for conventional planar ZnO-based Sb2S3 hybrid solar cells to improve the cell efficiency. The core–shell structure consisted of a network of Ag NWs as the core and a ZnO shell in the form of a coating layer covering the surface of the Ag NWs Compared to conventional planar ZnO-based Sb2S3 hybrid solar cells, the Ag NW/ZnO-based Sb2S3 hybrid solar cells showed an approximately 50% improvement in the power conversion efficiency due to the significant increase in the Jsc In turn, the improved Jsc was attributed to the increased surface area and charge-collection efficiency by the Ag NW network core. Out of several shell thicknesses, a 60 nm thick ZnO shell layer led to cells with the highest efficiency of 3.02%, demonstrating that the Ag NW/ZnO core–shell photoelectrodes effectively improved the efficiency of the Sb2S3 hybrid solar cells. Copyright © 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.