Abstract
Over the years, the cost of electricity produced by photovoltaics reduced significantly, but it is still notably higher and needs to undergo substantial further cost reduction. Organic photovoltaics (OPV) is a relatively new technology that has attracted tremendous research interest due to its inexpensive nature, abundant supply on the earth with potential future applications in terms efficiencies and lifetime. Bulk heterojunction concept with blending of donor–acceptor molecules provides many folds increase in conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaic. Petroleum crude contains undesirable and problematic asphaltene, an organic moiety, of different nature and structural type which shows absorption in different wavelengths in the UV–visible range. The present work has been carried out to understand the optical characteristics of asphaltenes blended with P3HT to see its potential for effective utilization as light absorber for OPV.
Asphaltenes, of different solubility classes, are separated using different alkanes as solvents. Separated asphaltenes fractions, as the acceptor and P3HT, as donor, were used for fabricating thin film while optical characterization of asphaltenes and blended thin films were captured. Though the used asphaltene fractions are showing absorption in the UV wavelength range, a significant visible light absorption is observed while blending it with hole transporting counterpart, P3HT. The broad absorption of the blended thin film reflects significant degree of structural ordering in the thin film. Annealing of the thin film at higher temperature (~250 °C) provide better absorption characteristics. The present study clearly indicates asphaltene to be a potential candidate for bulk heterojunction solar cells while more detailed study of their other photovoltaic properties required to be completed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are thankfully acknowledging PDPU for the research facilities. UKB acknowledges the support of GSPC for providing the crude oil samples for the work. Petroleum Engineering Laboratory and Reservoir Characterization Laboratory (RCL) of SPT and SRDC of PDPU are thankfully acknowledged for the optical characterization data and thin film preparation and characterization data, respectively.
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Bhui, U.K., Ray, A., Joshi, M.P. (2021). Feasibility Study of Crude Oil Asphaltenes as Light-Harvesting Materials for Organic Photovoltaics: Light Absorption Characteristics of the Thin Film with P3HT. In: Bhui, U.K. (eds) Macromolecular Characterization of Hydrocarbons for Sustainable Future. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6133-1_10
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