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)-titanium (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.