Inorganic organic hybrid solar cells have attracted considerable interest in recent years for their low production cost, good mechanical flexibility and ease of processing of polymer films over a large area. Particularly, silicon/conducting polymer hybrid solar cells are extensively investigated and widely believed to be a low-cost alternative to the crystalline silicon solar cells. However, the power conversion efficiency of silicon/conducting polymer solar cells remains low in case hydrogen-terminated silicon is used. In this paper, we report that by introducing a platinum nanoparticle interlayer between the hydrogen-terminated silicon and the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate), namely PEDOT:PSS, the power conversion efficiency of the resulting Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells can be improved by a factor of 2-3. The possible mechanism responsible for the improvement has been investigated using different techniques including impedance spectroscopy, Mott Schottky analysis and intensity modulated photocurrent/photovoltage spectroscopy (IMPS/IMVS). The results show that with a platinum nanoparticle interlayer, both the series resistance and charge transport/transfer resistance of the Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells are reduced leading to an increased short circuit current density, and the built-in voltage at the space charge region is raised facilitating electron-hole separation. Moreover, the lifetime of charge carriers in the Si/PEDOT:PSS solar cells is extended, namely, the recombination is effectively suppressed which also contributes to the improvement of photovoltaic performance. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.