6–10 Jul 2026
University of the Western Cape
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
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Silver Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Enhanced Performance of P3HT:PCBM Photovoltaic Cells

7 Jul 2026, 17:20
1h 20m
Great Hall (University of the Western Cape)

Great Hall

University of the Western Cape

Poster Presentation Track F - Applied Physics Poster Session 1

Speaker

Mpilo Dlamini (North-West University)

Description

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant progress in incorporating inorganic nanofillers into polymer blends, leading to enhanced performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices. In this work, Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):phenyl-C61-butyric-acid methyl-ester (P3HT:PCBM) photoactive layer blend was doped with 1, 3, and 5 wt% of ZnO:Ag nanoparticles (NPs). The ZnO:Ag NPs were prepared using a simple wet chemistry method. Electrical characteristics such as the open circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE) were extracted from current-voltage (J-V) measurements under illumination. The incorporation of the NPs enhanced the PCE of OPVs from 2.56% to an optimum of 3.28% an improvement of more than 28%. The addition of NPs into the photoactive layer enhanced light absorption by the P3HT:PCBM films due to light scattering (LS) and local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Increasing the NP concentration to 5 wt% had negative effects on the performance of the photovoltaic devices, reducing the PCE to 2.75%. This decline is attributed to NP overloading, which may have led to increased recombination and short-circuiting within the devices.

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Author

Mpilo Dlamini (North-West University)

Co-authors

Fokotsa Molefe (North-West University) Genene Tessema Mola (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

Presentation materials

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