Nitrogen-Doped Nickel Graphene Core Shell Synthesis: Structural, Morphological, and Chemical Composition for Planar Hybrid Solar Cells Application

Abstract

In this study, nitrogen-doped nickel graphene core cells (N-NiGR) are synthesized using the thermal chemical vapor deposition method. The structural, morphological, and chemical composition properties of N-NiGR are investigated using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. N-NiGR has shown potential as a material that can assist charge carrier transportation in the photoactive a layer of planar hybrid solar cell (PHSC) owing to its high charge carrier mobility and stability with the solution process. Here, we investigated for the first time an enhancement of the solar cell efficiency (by up to a 2% increase) in PHSCs by incorporating the charge selective N-NiGR into the device’s photoactive layer. Synthesized N-NiGR with different concentrations are incorporated into the active layer of the devices as charge transport material. The device structure of an ITO-coated glass/Hole transport layer/(PBT7+N-NiGR+SnS)/Electron transport layer/Cathode is fabricated and the maximum power conversion efficiency of the device was observed to be about 4.35%.