Silicon nanorods / P3HT hybrid solar cells

Vertically oriented Si nanorods (SiNRs) grown on different substrates were successfully obtained by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) with the glancing angle incident silane flux. The organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells were fabricated by spin coating 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) into the SiNRs array with the average length of ~200 nm and average separation of ~10 nm. The P3HT shows well penetration into the SiNRs. The materials and the devices were characterized by the absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The PL peak intensity of P3HT decreased after P3HT penetrating into SiNRs, which probably is due to the charge transfer between the SiNRs and P3HT and the interfacial recombination of carriers. The best hybrid solar cell to-date shows a power conversion efficiency of 0.2% under AM 1.5 illumination for the active area of 1 cm × 1 cm.