Abstract

• The poly (2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl hexyloxy)-1, 4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) films were prepared by spin coating technique. Introducing additive (ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) of size ~ 250 nm) and the optical properties of MEH-PPV polymer films were investigated by UV-vis spectrophotometry. Following the polymer film characterization, the organic solar cells using MEH-PPV based light absorber layer were fabricated and the effect of additive (ZnO-NPs) on the power conversion efficiency of the devices was investigated. The "dichlorobenzene" device outperformed the devices with other three rival solvents and its efficiency is as high as 0.112%. Despite having higher absorption in active layer with ZnO-NPs, the efficiency of this modified device underperformed the reference device (without ZnO-NPs) which is attributed to the restricted charge carrier transport and morphological perturbation. The additive concentrations have a strong impact on optical and surface morphological properties of the photoactive polymer films and thus on the photovoltaic performance of the devices.