Characterization and Performance of PAni-TiO₂ Photovoltaic Cells Treated by RF Plasma

Abstract

Severe research attempts are still in progress to improve the performance of polyaniline (PAni) based photoactive layers as one of the cheapest materials used for manufacturing organic solar cells. Herein, polymer solar cells were fabricated with ITO/(PAni-TiO2)/Au system. The photoactive layers (PAni-TiO2) were treated with a hydrogen-plasma discharge for low processing time of 0, 3 and 5 min to enhance the synthesized solar cells efficiency. The morphology, micro structure and optical properties of the prepared samples and plasma treated nanocomposite layers were investigated and discussed. The performance of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) cell samples have been systematically investigated before and after plasma treatment. The absorption and optical band gap energy is increased after the treated PAni-TiO2 photoactive layers. It is found that, the efficiency was enhanced to 0.7% after 5 min of hydrogen plasma process compared to 0.36% for the pristine cell. The efficiency increase is ascribed to a structural change that accompanied by a rapid increase in surface roughness, which leaded to a decrease in the reflected photons and in turn an increase in the produced charge carriers.

ZnO Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Methyl Orange Degradation: Hydrothermal Synthesis, Characterization, and Optimization

“…In the absorption spectrum, a shift in the absorption edge towards shorter wavelengths was observed. It is shifted from 260 nm to 300 nm when the reaction time increased from 8 to 18 h. This is greatly lower value compared to that reported for bulk ZnO (380 nm) [55]. 7 shows a variation of E g as a function of hydrothermal reaction time.…”

“…Further, the calculated E g values are 3.38, 3.67 and 4.63 eV corresponding to samples synthesized at various preparation times of 8, 12 and 18 h, respectively. Other researchers succeeded to synthesize ZnO NPs hydrothermally with relatively higher E g of 3.62 eV and 4.9 eV [55,56]. The relatively changes in E g value is mainly owing to the variation in the localized state density in E g [57,58].…”

Investigation of structural and optical properties of ternary polyaniline–polypyrrole–nickel oxide (PANI‐PPy‐NiO) nanocomposite for optoelectronic devices

“…The extinction coefficient is directly correlated to the absorption of a material and is related to the absorption coefficient. The extinction coefficient 53 is estimated from Eqn (): where α is the absorption coefficient and λ is the wavelength. Figure 10 presents the extinction coefficient of unary nanoparticles and ternary nanocomposite as a function of wavelength.…”

“…The extinction coefficient is directly correlated to the absorption of a material and is related to the absorption coefficient. The extinction coefficient 53 is estimated from Eqn (5):…”

Effect of temperature on the polymorphs of titania (TiO2) developed by sol-gel and hydrothermal processes for thin film uses

“…Mostly it exists anatase and rutile phase with tetragonal structure. Brookite phase possess crystalline orthorhombic structure [19]. For the white pigment application rutile is consumed due to its ability to protect against ultraviolet light and is only thermodynamically stable at all temperatures and pressure [20].…”