The effects of graphene oxide load on the optical, structural and electrical properties of ternary nanocomposites (Polyvinyl alcohol/copper/graphene oxide) for electronic and photovoltaic application

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol/copper/graphene oxide (PVA/Cu/GO) ternary nanocomposites films on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate were synthesized via electrochemical deposition technique. The structural, morphological and compositional properties of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), while the Optical absorption and conductivity measurements were studied by using ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectrophotometry and four-point probe techniques respectively. The XRD results revealed that the GO was dispersed uniformly in the composites. The results also revealed that the presence of GO enhanced the crystallinity of the nanocomposite films with visible characteristic peaks corresponding to indexed miller indices. Clusters of spherical shaped particles were visible in the SEM micrograph while the EDX confirmed the presences of carbon, copper, and oxygen as the major constituents of the deposited films. UV–visible analysis revealed a decrease in band gap values from 3.89 to 2.51 eV with increasing GO loading. Good absorbance in the UV region was observed at within the range of 350 to 400 nm. The nanocomposite films were found to show an increase in conductivity at low GO content as ascertained by Four-point probe analysis. The obtained results herein shows that the PVA/Cu/GO nanocomposites posses attractive physiochemical properties suitable for photovoltaic and organic electronic applications.