Study on electrical and optical properties of nanocomposited MEH-PPV: TiO2 thin film for hybrid solar cells

The performance of nanocomposited poly [2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy-p-phenylene-vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin film for hybrid solar cells application has been investigated. The nanocomposited MEH-PPV:TiO₂ thin film has been prepared on glass substrate using spin-coating deposition method at different composition (wt %) of TiO₂ nanoparticle from 5 to 15 wt% at room temperature. The electrical conductivities of nanocomposited thin films were measured by solar simulator for both in dark and under AM 1.5 100 mW/cm² white light illumination while a characterization of optical properties has been measured by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer to evaluate the absorbance as well as transmittance spectra of thin films. By comparing the nanocomposited MEH-PPV:TiO₂ thin films to pure MEH-PPV, it was found there are changes in their properties either electrical photoconductivity or absorbance spectra. Purely MEH-PPV shows the highest photoconductivity 0.00441 S.m^-1 compared to nanocomposited MEH-PPV:TiO₂ thin film. Whilst the optical properties exhibited the increment of light absorption as the concentration of TiO₂ in MEH-PPV increases compared to purely MEH-PPV alone with strong absorption at wavelength of 500 nm in visible ranges and 300 nm in UV ranges respectively.