Synthesis of Cu-doped ZnO for bulk heterojunction hybrid solar cells

Zinc oxide and copper doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by the co-precipitation method. The as-synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. The absorption studies have shown the decrease in bandgap with the increase in Cu ion doping from 3, 6, 9, 12, to 15% in ZnO lattices. Furthermore, ZnO and Cu-doped ZnO NPs successfully employed in bulk heterojunction solar cells. The devices constructed with pure ZnO in the P3HT blend showed a power conversion efficiency of 0.1%. Whereas the device fabricated with P3HT-Cu-doped ZnO (Cu, 12%) exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency of 0.31% with open-circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.30 V, short-circuit current density ( J sc ) of 2.54 mA/cm 2 , and fill factor of 41.84%.