الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The aim of this study is to develop a metallopolymer synthesis route of polythiophene/metal nanocomposites to be used as photoactive layers for renewable energy applications. This work has Four experimental parts : First Part Synthesis, characterization, Optical and Electrical Properties of Novel Highly Dendritic Polythiophene Nanocomposites With Silver and/or Gold Novel highly dendritic polythiophene/gold PT/Au and polythiophene/silver PT/Ag nanocomposites have been successfully prepared. Polythiophene PT has been also prepared for comparison. The obtained polymers have been characterized via scanning electron microscopy SEM, transmission electron microscopy TEM, UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FT-IR and thermo gravimetric analysis TGA. Optical as well as electrical properties have been also investigated. It was found that the highly dendritic structure of the nanocomposites resulted in high improvements in the optical and electrical properties for the nanocomposites rather than that of pure PT. Second Part Synthesis and characterization of Polythiophene Nanocomposites For Solar Energy This part concerns with the Polythiophene/Silver (PT/Ag) nanocomposite has been synthesized and characterized. Morphological studies as well as FT-IR analysis have been made to elucidate the structure of the formed nanocomposite. The morphological studies revealed that the formed nancomposite is highly dendritic forming tree like structure. A bulk heterojunction solar cell BHJSC has been built using the prepared nanocomposite as photo active layer. The solar cell parameters such as open circuit voltage Voc, short circuit current Isc and fill factor FF have been determined via current- voltage I-V characteristic. The maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) obtained from I-V characteristic was 14.2 % which is much higher than that obtained from other commercial Solar cells SC. The enhanced PCE was attributed to the superior highly dendritic structure of the formed nanocomposite which provides charge transfer CT pathways and facilitates separation of the formed excitons into free electrons and holes. As far as we know none of these characteristics have been reached before for any of the commercial solar cell based on PT in the open literature. Third Part Novel Miniemulsion Conducting Polythiophene Nanocomposites For Electrical Applications This part concerns with Novel polythiophene/copper (PT/Cu) and polythiophene/copper – Vanadium (PT/Cu-V) nanocomposites has been successfully prepared via simple chemical oxidative technique in presence of cuprous ions (Cu +) and/ or NH4VO3 as both dopant and oxidizing agent. The prepared nanocomposites has been characterized via transmission electron microscopy TEM, scanning electron microscopy SEM, UV–VIS spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FT-IR and thermo gravimetric analysis TGA. Pure polythiophene (PT) has been also prepared and characterized for comparison. The morphological studies revealed that the formed nanocomposites is highly dendritic forming flower like structure. The optical properties have been also investigated. The results revealed that the presence of Cu and NH4VO3 nanoparticles as well as the superior flower like structure have given enhanced optical properties. A bulk heterojunction solar cell (BHJSC) has been built using the prepared nanocomposite as photo active layer. The solar cell parameters such as open circuit voltage Voc, short circuit current Isc and fill factor FF have been determined via current- voltage I-V characteristic. The maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) obtained from I-V characteristic was 9.07 % and 4.8% for PT/Cu and PT/Cu-V which is much higher than that obtained from other commercial polythiophene based solar cells (SC). The enhanced PCE was attributed to the superior highly dendritic structure of the formed nanocomposite which provides charge transfer (CT) pathways and facilitates separation of the formed excitons into free electrons and holes. As far as we know none of these characteristics have been reached before in the open literature for PT based solar cells. |