Metal oxide-embedded carbon-based materials for polymer solar cells and X-ray detectors

Sikandar Aftab; Hailiang Liu; Dhanasekaran Vikraman; Sajjad Hussain; Jungwon Kang; Abdullah A Al-Kahtani

doi:10.1039/d3nr05143a

Metal oxide-embedded carbon-based materials for polymer solar cells and X-ray detectors

Nanoscale. 2024 Jan 3;16(2):765-776. doi: 10.1039/d3nr05143a.

Authors

Sikandar Aftab¹, Hailiang Liu², Dhanasekaran Vikraman³, Sajjad Hussain⁴, Jungwon Kang², Abdullah A Al-Kahtani⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Intelligent Mechatronics Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, South Korea. aftab@sejong.ac.kr.
² Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Dankook University, Yongin 16890, Korea.
³ Division of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Korea.
⁴ Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁵ Chemistry Department, Collage of Science, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 38088682
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr05143a

Abstract

This study examines the effects of hybrid nanoparticles made of NiO@rGO (reduced graphene oxide) and NiO@CNT (carbon nanotubes) on PCDTBT and PCBM active layers in glass/ITO/HTL/active-layer/LiF/Al structured bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) and X-ray photodetectors. These hybrid nanoparticles were used to create BHJ solar cells and photodetectors, and microscopic research was conducted to determine how they affect the structure of the devices. The findings show that compared to conventional matrices, the active layers with NiO@rGO and NiO@CNT incorporation have increased the charge carrier capacities and exciton dissociation properties. In order to assess their impact on the characteristics of charge transport, various weight ratios of these hybrid nanoparticles dispersed in polymer junctions are being investigated. Notably, compared to the pure PCDTBT:PCBM active layer (power conversion efficiency (PCE) = 4.35%), the NiO@CNT device has the highest PCE = 6.42% which, among the tested configurations, demonstrates its superior performance in converting sunlight into electricity. Among the tested X-ray detector materials, "NiO@CNT" achieves the best performance with a sensitivity of 1.92 mA Gy^-1 cm^-2. Through improved interfacial behaviors and effective charge transport, this work highlights the potential of these cutting-edge hybrid nanoparticles to enhance the performance of organic electronic devices.