An investigation into the photovoltaic activity of a new nanocomposite of (polyaniline nanofibers)/(titanium dioxide nanoparticles) with different architectures

New nanocomposites of polyaniline nanofibers/titanium dioxide nanoparticles (PANINFs/TiO(2)NPs) from aniline hydrochloride salt, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO(2)NPs) and FeCl(3 center dot)6H(2)O as the oxidant were synthesized through a simple mechanochemical reaction in solid state and template-free technique. The PANINFs/TiO(2)NPs nanocomposite, polyaniline nanofibers (PANINFs) and TiO(2)NPs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectra, ultraviolet-visible spectra, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrical conductivity. TEM images clearly demonstrate that TiO(2)NPs are embedded in the PANINFs. Electrochemical calculations of band gap from CV curves indicated that the forbidden band gap of the PANINFs/TiO(2)NPs nanocomposite is 1.78 eV, realizing the complementary advantages of n and p semiconductors. Doctor blade method was used to prepare films for three kinds of hybrid solar cells in terms of different architectures such as ITO vertical bar TiO(2)NPs vertical bar PANINFs vertical bar Al, ITO vertical bar PANINFs/TiO(2)NPs vertical bar Al, and ITO vertical bar TiO(2)NPs vertical bar PANINFs/TiO(2)NPs vertical bar Al. Their I-V characteristics and power conversion efficiency (PCE) under 100 mWcm(-2) irradiation and AM 1.5 global conditions were measured and discussed. The PCE of the three samples were 0.21, 0.38 and 0.91%, respectively.