Influence of Si-nanoparticles on PEDOT:PSS properties for hybrid solar cells

Hole-conducting poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is a material receiving increasing interest for use in photovoltaic devices. In this work, we present the results of study of the degradation of the optical and electrical properties of pure PEDOT:PSS and PEDOT:PSS doped with Si-nanoparticles. The PEDOT:PSS has been deposited on top of Si wafers by spin coating. We found that incorporation of Si nanoparticles into PEDOT:PSS enhances the surface passivation of the surface of the Si wafer by increasing the carrier lifetime measured by the photoluminesence quasi-steady state photoconductance (PL QSS-PC) method from about 320※μs to 420※μs at a minority carrier injection level of 2∗10¹⁵cm^-3. Analysis showed that incorporation of the Si nanoparticles does not change the kinetics of degradation of lifetime considerably.