Improved photovoltaic performance of silicon nanowires/conjugated polymer hybrid solar cells

•Incorporation of SiNWs into conjugated polymer matrix.•Red-shift of polymer absorption spectra.•Quenching of PL intensity with SiNWs addition.•Amelioration of Photovoltaic performance.•Correlation morphology-optical responses. In this study, we investigate the effect of incorporation of Si nanowires (SiNWs) on the organic/inorganic hybrid nanocomposites based on poly [2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and SiNWs. A huge potential for SiNWs for an amelioration of optical properties of investigated structures was shown, and particularly a more efficient charge transfer was guaranteed. The impact of SiNWs incorporation on photoluminescence properties of polymer:Si nanowires nanocomposites have been correlated with morphological characteristics. MEH-PPV:SiNWs (1:2) is the optimum composition where the device performance displays a Jsc of 0.328μA/cm2, a Voc of 0.680V and FF of 38%.