Optical properties of nanocomposite MEH-PPV:ZnO thin films

Abstract

This paper studies on the effect of different weight percentage of ZnO nanoparticles on the optical properties of the nanocomposite MEH-PPV:ZnO thin films. In this work, MEH-PPV solutions were first prepared using toluene as the solvent, before ZnO nanopowders were added into the solutions. The samples were deposit using sol-gel spin coating technique on glass substrates. Samples were characterized using point probe and supply system for current-voltage (I-V) measurement, and UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer for the optical properties. The conductivity of the samples increases with the increment of the ZnO nanoparticles except for with 10wt% of the ZnO in the nanocomposite thin films. The highest transmittance was obtained in samples with 10 wt% ZnO, while the lowest transmittance was obtained in pure MEH-PPV samples. From the Tauc's plot, the optical bandgap of the nanocomposite increases as the ZnO wt.% increases. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.