Synergistic effect of dual interfacial modifications with room-temperature-grown epitaxial ZnO and adsorbed indoline dye for ZnO nanorod array/P3HT hybrid solar cell.

ZnO nanorod (NR)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) hybrid solar cells with interfacial modifications are investigated in this work. The ZnO NR arrays are modified with room-temperature (RT)-grown epitaxial ZnO shells or/and D149 dye molecules prior to the P3HT infiltration. A synergistic effect of the dual modifications on the efficiency of the ZnO NR/P3HT solar cell is observed. The open-circuit voltage and fill factor are considerable improved through the RT-grown ZnO and D149 modifications in sequence on the ZnO NR array, which brings about a 2-fold enhancement of the efficiency of the ZnO NR/P3HT solar cell. We suggested that the more suitable surface of RT-grown ZnO for D149 adsorption, the chemical compatibility of D149 and P3HT, and the elevated conduction band edge of the RT-grown ZnO/D149-modified ZnO NR array construct the superior interfacial morphology and energetics in the RT-grown ZnO/D149-modified ZnO NR/P3HT hybrid solar cell, resulting in the synergistic effect on the cell efficiency. An efficiency of 1.16% is obtained in the RT-grown ZnO/D149-modified ZnO NR/P3HT solar cell.