Functionalized graphene nanoplatelets as a barrier enhancing filler in organic photovoltaic encapsulant

Abstract

AbstractThis research work has concerned the development of polymer films, reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) for use as encapsulating films for organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of concentrations and orientations of GNP on mechanical, optical, and barrier properties of polymer composite films. In this regard, the neat GNP was modified with Fe3O4 prior to mixing with acrylate‐based monomers. The mixture was then cured by photo‐polymerization with and without the application of magnetic fields. Changes in orientation of the functionalized GNP with the direction of applied magnetic fields were analyzed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. From the results, it was found that by inducing the orientation of functionalized GNP to the horizontal direction (with respect to the OPV cell), the great enhancement in tensile and barrier properties of the polymer composite films was achieved. This led to the longer performance of the OPV cell encapsulated with the nanocomposite film with 0.1 phr of the horizontally oriented GNP in comparison with the OPV cell encapsulated with the film reinforced with randomly oriented GNP at the same content.