Optical and thermal properties of PTh-co-PANI-Ti random copolymer composite for photovoltaic application

In thе present work, a polythiophene (PTh)-co-polyaniline (PANI)-titaniun (Ti) copolymer has been synthesized as a novel copolymeric composite material for photovoltaic (PV) application. The focus of the study was to evaluate optical and thermal properties of the PTh-co-PANI-Ti copolymer containing different types of monomers. The optical conductivity was determined from the UV-VIS spectra that were used to calculate the extinction coefficients. The structure and morphology of composite was analyzed through field emission-electron microscopy (FESEM). The PTh-co-PANI-Ti copolymer composite exhibited significant photovoltaic (PV) response to light intensity. J-V analysis showed an increase in conversion efficiency from 0.21 to 1.5 of PTh-co-PANi-Ti with illumination light intensity. PV properties demonstrated that the PTh-co-PANI-Ti exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency ɳ = 1.5, with a short circuit current Isc = 0.72 mA, an open circuit voltage Voc = 0.9 V and a fill factor FF = 0.51. Thermo-gravimetric (TG) and differential thermal (DTA) analyses were carried out for the thermal stability of the PTh-co-PANI-Ti copolymer composite. The results obtained from the characterization of PTh-co-PANI-Ti showed that many properties of PV action are present in as-synthesized material.