Effect of Al doping on the electrical and optical properties of TiO2 embedded Graphene Oxide nanosheets for opto-electronic applications

Exfoliated graphene sheets serve as a good candidate for high performance electronics as they display unique electrical properties. Owing to this, (GO) graphene oxide- Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocomposites has been utilized as an electron transport layer (ETL) for photovoltaic applications. Incorporation of GO-TiO2 nanocomposites in solar cells enhances the efficiency of the device by improving the electron transport. Moreover, metal doping to TiO2 enhances the optical properties by passivating the defects. Metal doping improves charge transports of a TiO2− GO nanocomposite. This work, aims to study the role of aluminum as a dopant in TiO2−GO nanocomposites. TiO2−GO nanocomposites were synthesized by wet chemical method. The effect of aluminum and graphene oxide were investigated on the structural, morphological, electrical and optical characteristics of anatase TiO2. The amount of GO added to Al doped TiO2 was optimized and their impacts on carrier concentration, mobility and film resistivity were investigated. The results revealed that the synthesized Al doped TiO2− GO nanocomposites were of superior quality and is suitable material for energy-conversion and -storage applications devices.