%0 Journal Article
%A Moldarev, D.
%A Taeño González, María
%A Maestre Varea, David
%A Cremades Rodríguez, Ana Isabel
%A Karazhanov, Smagul Zh
%A Marstein, E.
%T Electrical and optical properties of composite PEDOT: PSS-based thin films with NiO nanoparticles
%D 2020
%@ 2214-7853
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/7667
%X Due to the combination of low cost materials deposition and device fabrication methods as well as competitive efficiency compared to the other Si solar cell architectures, the hybrid organic-silicon solar cells have attracted attention of the scientific community. It has recently been demonstrated that spin-coated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (hereafter PEDOT:PSS) on a silicon wafer is a promising material due to its good optical and electrical properties. However, degradation caused by atmospheric exposure and relatively poor passivation properties limits implementation of PEDOT:PSS- silicon devices. Functionalization of PEDOT:PSS by inorganic nanoparticles might provide a possible solution as was shown for TiO_2 and SnO_2 nanoparticles. In this contribution, we present our results on spincoated PEDOT:PSS thin-films with NiO nanoparticles. We show that PEDOT:PSS mixed with Triton X-100 and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or ethylene glycol (EG) form a homogenous film and passivates the Si surface with charge carrier lifetimes of 300-400 ms with good reproducibility. Time-resolved measurements revealed continuous degradation of the passivation properties in air, however saturation of the degradation at approximately 150 ms was observed in N_2 atmosphere. The influence of the NiO nanoparticles on the optical properties of PEDOT:PSS is negligible, whereas the surface passivation properties are worsened due probably to the formation of large size agglomerates exceeding thickness of PEDOT:PSS film.
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