Robust electron transport properties of PANI/PPY/ZnO polymeric nanocomposites for OLED applications

Nanostructured pristine PANI, pristine PPY and PANI/PPY/ZnO polymeric nanocomposites were synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization process. The formation of PANI and PPY matrix and the respective change in the nano strain with the embodiment of ZnO nano-particles were examined by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) technique. The FESEM images showed topological structure with agglomerated nano-flakes of the PANI/PPY/ZnO ternary nanocomposites. The optical transmittance spectra showed optimized transmittance characteristic peak observed at ∼495 nm associated to blue-green region. The PL spectra revealed high electron-hole non-radiative recombination corresponding to blue, green and yellow bands respectively. Enhanced current density (∼263%) and optimized reduced band gap (∼2.53 eV) were estimated that led to the improved conductivity of PANI/PPY/ZnO nanocomposites. The reduced energy band gap, improved conductivity and increased rate of electron-hole non-radiative recombination with fairly improvement of transmittance inferred that it can be used as electron transport layer in OLED device fabrication.