Effective Energy Harvesting in Polymer Solar Cells Using NiS/Co as Nanocomposite Doping

Abstract

Over the past two decades, organic semiconductors have attracted significant research interest due to their advantageous features, including low-cost fabrication, lightweight properties, and portability, for photonic device applications. In this study, nickel sulfide doped with cobalt (NiS/Co) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via a wet-chemical processing technique and used as a dopant in the active layer of thin-film organic solar cells (TFOSCs). The poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) blend was used as the active layer in this investigation. The devices were fabricated with NiS/Co nanocomposites at 1 wt%, 2 wt%, and 3 wt% in the active layer to determine the optimal dopant concentration. However, the experimental evidence clearly showed that the solar cell’s performance depends on the concentration of the NiS/Co nanocomposites. As a result, the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) recorded in this experimental work was 6.11% at a 1% doping concentration, compared with 2.48% for the pristine reference device under AM 1.5G illumination (100 mW/cm2) in ambient conditions. The optical and electrical properties of the active layers are found to be strongly influenced by the inclusion of NiS/Co nanocomposites in the medium. However, the device doped with 1 wt% NiS/Co nanocomposite exhibits the highest absorption intensity, consistent with the better performance observed in this study, which can be attributed to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect. The optical and morphological characteristics of the synthesized NiS/Co nanocomposites were comprehensively analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), and additional complementary techniques.