Morphological and Optical Studies of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Deposited by Spin Coating on Various Substrates

Abstract

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin films have been synthesized using spin coating technique on glass and SnO 2 :F substrates. Atomic force microscopy, spectrophotometry and spectrofluorimetry techniques are used to examine the effect of the experimental conditions on the morphological and optical properties. Better crystallinity was obtained for P3HT/SnO 2 :F/glass. In fact, films grown on SnO 2 :F substrates were relatively uniform with an average surface roughness of about 14.1 nm. A band gap energy of 2 eV was obtained from T( ) and R( ) measurements, value close to the theoretical optimum between 1.9 and 2 eV indicating that P3HT is a suitable compound for solar cell applications. Photoluminescence measurements (PL) showed an emission peak at 524 nm assigned to - * transition and reduction of constraint in the case of P3HT/SnO 2 :F.

Thermal Dependence of Optical Parameters of Thin Polythiophene Films Blended with PCBM

“…Therefore, it is important to choose the best testing methods that provide accurate information about the energy gap and the electronic structure of polymer films. So far, the value of the energy gap of tested materials has been deduced based on the dispersion of the extinction coefficient determined by spectrophotometric measurements using Tauc or Cody models [ 9 , 21 ].…”

“…To date, the optical qualities of polythiophenes and P3HT/PCBM as well as P3OT/PCBM structures have mostly been studied at room temperature [ 10 , 21 ]. The results of these works are referred to in this section of the article.…”