Synthesis and properties of bismuth oxide nanoshell coated polyaniline nanoparticles for promising photovoltaic properties

A novel heterostructure made of polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles coated by nanolayer of bismuth oxide Bi(2)O(3) was synthesized. The structure was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. These characterizations showed that the bismuth oxide nanoshell was pure and crystalline, and has thickness in the range of 10 nm. The experiment on photoluminescence (PL) of Bi(2)O(3) nanoshell coated polyaniline nanoparticle, at room temperature, shows an emission band peaked at around 385 nm. When compared with the PL spectrum of Bi(2)O(3) nanoparticles, about 100 times PL enhancement was found in the PL spectrum of Bi(2)O(3) nanoshell coated polyaniline nanoparticle. The current density versus voltage (J-V) measurements in dark and illumination showed that this heterojunction has 4 orders of magnitude rectification in the dark and 3 orders of magnitude rectification under illumination. The obtained power conversion efficiency of polyaniline nanoparticles coated by nanoshell of bismuth oxide (eta = 7.453%) was much enhanced compared with polyaniline alone (eta = 8.33x10(-4) %) this indicates that the prepared heterostructure represents a promising photovoltaic solar cell. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.