Hybrid Nanostructured Materials for Efficient Photovoltaic Device Fabrication

Abstract

The direct conversion of the sunlight into electricity is the most elegant process to generate environmentally-friendly renewable energy. The organic solar cells based on conjugated polymers have the potential to be part of the world’s solution to the future of energy, but still face many challenges. They have the promise of being a cheaper alternative to inorganic solar cells. Conjugated polymers have been fabricated through this thesis into a nanostructure inorganic template (PSi). The PSi was prepared in different pore sizes and the as-formed PSi matrices were used as templates for the electropolymerization of nanoconducting polymers, PPy, PTh, and PANI. MEH-PPV was also deposited into PSi matrix via spin coating and immersion plating techniques. The heterojunction diodes of the as prepared PSi and (PTh, PANI, and MEH-PPV/PSi) were fabricated and the I-V characteristics of these films were studied. The highest conductivity was obtained in the case of depositing MEH-PPV compared to the cases of other CPs (PTh and PANI). This thesis met its primary objective by successfully fabrication of photovoltaic devices based on MEH-PPV with the