Among various organic materials suitable for silicon-based inorganic-organic hybrid solar cells, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has been extensively studied due to its high optical transmittance, high work function, and low bandgap characteristics. The electro-optical properties of PEDOT:PSS have a significant impact on the power conversion efficiency of silicon-organic hybrid solar cells. To enhance the photovoltaic properties of the silicon-organic hybrid solar cells, we developed a method to improve the properties of the PEDOT:PSS film using Ag nanowires (NW) instead of conventional solvent addition methods. The influence of the Ag NW on the electro-optical property of the PEDOT:PSS film and the photovoltaic performance of the silicon-organic hybrid solar cells were investigated. The addition of Ag NW further improved the sheet resistance of the PEDOT:PSS film, enhancing the performance of the silicon-organic hybrid solar cells. The present work using the low sheet resistance PEDOT:PSS layer paves the way to develop simple yet more efficient siliconorganic hybrid solar cells.

We demonstrate a simple and effective method to accurately position silicon nanowires (Si NWs) at desirable locations using drop-casting of Si NW inks; this process is suitable for applications in nanoelectronics or nanophotonics. Si NWs were assembled into a lithographically patterned sacrificial photoresist (PR) template by means of capillary interactions at the solution interface. In this process, we varied the type of solvent of the SiNW-containing solution to investigate different assembly behaviors of Si NWs in different solvents. It was found that the assembly of Si NWs was strongly dependent on the surface energy of the solvents, which leads to different evaporation modes of the Si NW solution. After Si NW assembly, the PR template was cleanly removed by thermal decomposition or chemical dissolution and the Si NWs were transferred onto the underlying substrate, preserving its position without any damage. This method enables the precise control necessary to produce highly integrated NW assemblies on all length scales since assembly template is easily fabricated with top-down lithography and removed in a simple process after bottom-up drop-casting of NWs.