Facile synthesis and fabrication of a poly(ortho-anthranilic acid) emeraldine salt thin film for solar cell applications

• Published in: New journal of chemistry Vol. 42; no. 12; pp. 1386 - 1395
• Main Authors: Al-Hossainy, A. F, Kh. Thabet, H, Zoromba, M. Sh, Ibrahim, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2018
• Subjects: Acidic oxides; Aluminum; Chemical synthesis; Energy gap; Heterojunction devices; Heterojunctions; Luminous intensity; Morphology; Nanostructure; Open circuit voltage; Photovoltaic cells; Polymers; Short circuit currents; Short circuits; Silicon; Single crystals; Spin coating; Thin films; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/c8nj01204k

Poly( o -anthranilic acid) emeraldine salt (PANA-ES) as a conjugated semiconductor polymer has been synthesized in an acidic medium based oxidative polymerization route. The identification of the PANA-ES powder has been carried out using the following techniques: FT-IR and UV-Vis. SEM has been used to investigate the morphology of the resulting PANA-ES powder. The structural properties of the resulting nanostructured PANA-ES thin film have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The analysis of the spectral behavior characteristics of the nanostructured PANA-ES thin film, in the absorption region, displayed a direct and indirect allowed transition, and the fundamental energy gaps were estimated as (1.89, 3.24 eV) and (2.35, 4.06 eV), respectively. A hybrid (polymer/inorganic) heterojunction device built on PANA-ES (deposited by the spin coating technique onto a p-Si single crystal wafer) was fabricated. The dark I - V characteristics were determined at different temperatures in the range from 298 to 386 K of the Au/PANA-ES/p-Si/Al heterojunction diode. The device showed rectification behavior and an ideality factor of 85 at ±2 V and 3.229 determined at room temperature. Under the following different light intensities: 10.1, 15.3 and 20.5 W m −2 , the Au/PANA-ES/p-Si/Al showed photovoltaic performance data with a short circuit current ( I sc ) and open circuit voltage ( V oc ) of (0.09 mA 1,41 mV), (0.16 mA, 176 mV) and (0.26 mA and 211 mV), respectively. The filling factor (FF) and electrical conversion efficiency ( η ) of the Au/n-PANA-ES/p-Si/Al device were found to be 0.205 and 6.07%, respectively. Schematic diagram of the Au/PANA-ES/p-Si/Al heterojunction device.