A comparative study on liquid-state photoelectrochemical cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) and a composite film of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and nanocrystalline titanium dioxide

A comparative study was done between liquid-state photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) consisting of photoactive electrodes of poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, and a composite film of nanocrystalline titanium dioxide (nc-TiO2) and P3HT. The nc-TiO2/P3HT based device shows better performance with an open-circuit voltage of 0.51 V, a short-circuit current of 0.31 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.51 when illuminated with white light intensity of 100 mW/cm2. The IPCE% obtained at 550 nm for P3HT based device was 0.18% while for that of the nc-TiO2/P3HT based device was 4%. In P3HT based devices, P3HT showed its p-type behavior while in nc-TiO2/P3HT based devices, P3HT acted as a sensitizer to nanocrystalline TiO2.