Activated-TiO2 Using UV Irradiation for Effective Core-shell Structured PAni-TiO2 Active Layer and Efficiency Assessment of Organic Solar Cells | Chapter 09 | Recent Trends in Chemical and Material Sciences Vol. 8

To improve the performance of organic solar cells by increasing the properties of the photoactivated nanocomposite layer, UV irradiation was employed to activate titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs). An FTO/(PAni-TiO2)/Ag combination was used to make polymer solar cells. PAni-TiO2 nanocomposite films were created by combining 20 percent activated TiO2 NPs with a series of mixed polyaniline (PAni) at various processing periods. The structural evolution, surface features, optical, and electrical properties of PAni-TiO2 films have all been investigated. According to XRD patterns, UV treatment of TiO2 NPs raised the crystallite from 18.35 to 24.1 nm and the degree of crystallinity by 5.6 percent. The irradiation PAni-TiO2 films had a rougher and more porous surface than the untreated ones. The adhesion force and electrical conductivity of the treated nanocomposite films also improved after 8 hours, to 137 mN/m and 6.62 S/m, respectively. The addition of UV-activated TiO2 NPs to the PAni matrix boosted the current density (Jsc) of PAni-TiO2 based nanocomposite solar cells from 3.11 to 4.83 (mA/cm2) and their efficiency from 0.33 to 0.85 percent. The increase in solar cell efficiency is due to a structural change accompanied by a rapid increase in surface roughness, which resulted in a reduction in reflected photons and, as a result, an increase in charge carriers created. These findings demonstrated that UV irradiation of TiO2 NPs on their surface affected their structural properties as well as the electrical interaction between PAni and TiO2 NPs, which had a significant impact on the amount of carrier transport inside PAni-TiO2 composites.

Author(S) Details

M. Abdelhamid Shahat
PV Unit, Solar and Space Research Department, National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), 11421 Helwan, Cairo, Egypt.

Ahmed Ghitas
PV Unit, Solar and Space Research Department, National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), 11421 Helwan, Cairo, Egypt.

F. M. El-Hossary
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, 82524 Sohag, Egypt.

A. M. Abd El-Rahman
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, 82524 Sohag, Egypt and King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah, KSA.

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