Issue 20, 2017, Issue in Progress

Enhancement of the carrier mobility of conducting polymers by formation of their graphene composites

Abstract

Conducting polymers (CP) with high charge carrier mobility are crucial for flexible organic electronic devices. However, the inherent carrier mobility of these polymers is very low. Therefore, methodologies need to be explored to improve the carrier transport in these polymers so that they can be efficiently used in organic electronic devices. Graphene, due to its exceptional electrical and mechanical properties, is a promising material to be examined for its possible incorporation in CP matrix to achieve the objective. We have prepared graphene composites of the conducting polymers following an optimized procedure and these were investigated for their charge transport properties. The mobility values were measured using electric field induced second harmonic generation (EFISHG) and field effect transistor (FET) transfer characteristics. Both the transient and average mobilities were found to increase significantly with the inclusion of graphene. This enhancement in mobility has been attributed to an ordered packing of the thinner and smaller graphene sheets with polymer chain and interfacial π–π interaction. To substantiate its usefulness in device applications, the effect of graphene inclusion was also investigated for polymer solar cells and it was observed that despite of reduction in open circuit voltage, device fabricated using graphene composites yielded about 20% higher efficiencies as compared to pristine conducting polymer devices.

Graphical abstract: Enhancement of the carrier mobility of conducting polymers by formation of their graphene composites

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Nov 2016
Accepted
10 Feb 2017
First published
20 Feb 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 11913-11920

Enhancement of the carrier mobility of conducting polymers by formation of their graphene composites

A. K. Chauhan, S. K. Gupta, D. Taguchi, T. Manaka, P. Jha, P. Veerender, C. Sridevi, S. P. Koiry, S. C. Gadkari and M. Iwamoto, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 11913 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA26195G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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