Highly conductive and transparent reduced graphene oxide/aluminium doped zinc oxide nanocomposite for the next generation solar cell applications

In this paper, aluminum-doped zinc oxide(AZO)/reduced graphene oxide nano-composite thin films are synthesized by a one-pot, solution-processed method. The nanocomposite film has been extensively characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray-diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Hall effect measurement and UV-Vis spectroscopy. It is found that the controlled addition of reduced graphene oxide into AZO can lower the film's resistivity without causing significant degradation of optical transparency. In addition, nanocomposite films post-annealed at process temperature at 500 degrees C possesses the lowest resistivity and the highest optical transmittance and that further increases in the annealing temperature degrades the film's property due to nucleation of other phases of the AZO. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.