Tahir Muhammad, Sarker Mahidur R, Ali Shabina, Hussian Shahid, Ali Sajad, Imran Khan Muhammad, Khan Dil Nawaz, Ali Rashid, Mohd Said Suhana
Department of Physics, Faculty of Physical and Numerical Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan 23200, Pakistan.
Institute of IR 4.0, Unverisity Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jan 10;15(2):363. doi: 10.3390/polym15020363.
The appropriate combination of semiconducting polymer-inorganic nanocomposites can enhance the existing performance of polymers-only-based photovoltaic devices. Hence, polyaniline (PANI)/zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocomposites were prepared by combining ZnO nanoparticles with PANI in four distinct ratios to optimize their photovoltaic performance. Using a simple coating method, PANI, ZnO, and its nanocomposite, with varying weight percent (wt%) concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles, i.e., (1 wt%, 2 wt%, 3 wt%, and 4 wt%), were fabricated and utilized as an active layer to evaluate the potential for the high-power conversion efficiency of various concentrations, respectively. PANI/ZnO nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and I-V measurement techniques. The XRD analysis showed a distinct, narrow peak, which corresponds to the wurtzite ZnO (101) plane. The SEM analysis verified the production of the PANI/ZnO composite by demonstrating that the crystalline ZnO was integrated into the PANI matrix. The elemental composition was determined by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), which confirmed the existence of PANI and ZnO without any impurities, respectively. Using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, various chemical bonds and stretching vibrations were analyzed and assigned to different peaks. The bandgap narrowing with an increasing PANI/ZnO composition led to exceptional optical improvement. The I-V characterization was utilized to investigate the impact of the nanocomposite on the electrical properties of the PANI/ZnO, and various concentrations of ZnO (1 wt%, 2 wt%, 3 wt%, and 4 wt%) in the PANI matrix were analyzed under both light and dark conditions at an STC of 1.5 AM globally. A high PCE of 4.48% was achieved for the PANI/ZnO (3 wt%), which revealed that the conductivity of the PANI/ZnO nanocomposite thin films improved with the increasing nanocomposite concentration.
半导体聚合物-无机纳米复合材料的适当组合可以提高仅基于聚合物的光伏器件的现有性能。因此，通过将氧化锌（ZnO）纳米颗粒与聚苯胺（PANI）以四种不同比例混合，制备了聚苯胺（PANI）/氧化锌（ZnO）纳米复合材料，以优化其光伏性能。采用简单的涂层方法，制备了具有不同重量百分比（wt%）浓度的氧化锌纳米颗粒（即1 wt%、2 wt%、3 wt%和4 wt%）的聚苯胺、氧化锌及其纳米复合材料，并将其用作活性层，分别评估各种浓度下实现高功率转换效率的潜力。通过X射线衍射（XRD）、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、原子力显微镜（AFM）、傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱、紫外-可见（UV-vis）吸收、能量色散X射线（EDX）和I-V测量技术对聚苯胺/氧化锌纳米复合材料进行了表征。XRD分析显示出一个明显的窄峰，对应于纤锌矿ZnO（101）平面。SEM分析通过证明结晶ZnO被整合到PANI基质中，验证了PANI/ZnO复合材料的生成。通过能量色散X射线分析（EDX）确定了元素组成，证实了PANI和ZnO的存在且无任何杂质。利用傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱分析了各种化学键和伸缩振动，并将其分配到不同的峰上。随着聚苯胺/氧化锌组成的增加，带隙变窄导致了显著的光学改善。利用I-V表征研究了纳米复合材料对聚苯胺/氧化锌电学性能的影响，并在全球1.5 AM的标准测试条件下，在光照和黑暗条件下分析了聚苯胺基质中不同浓度的氧化锌（1 wt%、2 wt%、3 wt%和4 wt%）。聚苯胺/氧化锌（3 wt%）实现了4.48%的高功率转换效率，这表明聚苯胺/氧化锌纳米复合薄膜的电导率随着纳米复合材料浓度的增加而提高。
