High Performance ZnO-SnO2:F Nanocomposite Transparent Electrodes for Energy Applications

作者：Giusti Gael^*; Consonni Vincent; Puyoo Etienne; Bellet Daniel

来源：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2014, 6(16): 14096-14107.

DOI：10.1021/am5034473

• Tin dioxide
• ZnO
• haze factor
• electro-optical
• light scattering
• nanocomposite transparent electrode

Enhancing the propagation length of light without sacrificing the electro-optical properties of transparent electrodes is of particular interest to solar cells for reaching higher efficiency. This can typically be achieved by nano-structured electrodes but all too often at the expense of complexity and cost-effectiveness. In this work, we demonstrate the simple and low-cost fabrication of a new type of ZnO-SnO2:F nanocomposite thin film by combining spin-coated ZnO nanoparticles on glass with fluorine-doped SnO2 thin films deposited by atmospheric spray pyrolysis. The resulting nanocomposites exhibit a dual surface morphology featuring rough ZnO-SnO2:F nanostructures along with the original smooth SnO2:F thin film. By readily modulating the surface morphology of ZnO-SnO2:F nanocomposite thin films with the initial ZnO NP surface coverage, the scattering efficiency of the incident light can remarkably be controlled over the 400-1100 nm solar spectrum wavelength range. High quality hazy ZnO-SnO2:F thin layers are therefore formed with an averaged haze factor ranging from 0.4 to 64.2% over the 400-1100 nm solar spectrum range while the sheet resistance is kept smaller than 15 Omega/sq for an average total optical transmittance close to 80%, substrate absorption and reflection included. Eventually, optical simulations using Fourier transform techniques are performed for computing the obtained haze factors and show good agreement with experimental data in the 400-1100 nm solar spectrum wavelength range. This opens up additional opportunities

• 出版日期2014-8-27