Poly(3-hexylthiophene)/hexamine modified ZnO hybrid nanocomposite: structural, optical, thermal and electrical transport studies

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/HA@ZnO nanocomposite by in situ polymerization and demonstrates their thermal, morphological and optoelectronic properties. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared by the simple approach of co- precipitation method using zinc acetate dihydrate as precursor modified by hexamine (HA) acting as a capping agent. Structural and photo physical studies shows that conjugated polymer chains intimately contact with the inorganic semiconductor. ZnO has wurtzite structure with average crystallite size of 40 nm. The emission spectra indicate that modified ZnO nanoparticles results in more efficient photo induced charge transfer than that of the simple nanocomposite of P3HT/ZnO. The morphological studies revealed that the transformation of granular morphology of P3HT to the clusters in P3HT/HA@ZnO hybrid nanocomposites. Cyclic voltammeter elucidates the electrochemical behavior and the HOMO–LUMO energy levels of the nanocomposites. The results indicate that the P3HT/HA@ZnO nanocomposite has energy gap of 0.72 eV, indicating this composite has potential for the fabricating hybrid organic–inorganic solid state solar cells. A solar to electric energy conversion efficiency of 0.1238 % was attained with the system.