In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (O-AgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (W-AgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FT-IR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPswere highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymerlayer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects onthe device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density (JSC) of thesolar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPsintroduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and theirblending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

We report the effect of the chain length of carboxylic acid on the photoluminescence(PL) of /ZnS nanocrystals. /ZnS nanocrystals with emission wavelength ranging from 566 nm through 583 nm were synthesized with zinc acetate and carboxylic acids with various chain length. In this study, /ZnS nanocrystals prepared using long chain carboxylic acid showed more improved PL intensity. The origin of strong photoluminescence of the nanocrystals prepared with zinc acetate and long chain carboxylic acid was ascribed to improved size distribution due to strong reactivity between long chain carboxylic acid and zinc acetate.