Modifying Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) (PVA) from Insulator to Small-Bandgap Polymer: A Novel Approach for Organic Solar Cells and Optoelectronic Devices

An innovative method has been used to reduce the bandgap of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer by addition of a nontoxic, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly material. The resulting materials are small-bandgap polymers, hence opening new frontiers in green chemistry. The doped PVA films showed a wide range of light absorption of the solar spectrum from 200 nm to above 800 nm. Nonsharp absorption behavior versus wavelength was observed for the samples. The refractive index exhibited a wide range of dispersion. Shift of the absorption edge from 6.2 eV to 1.5 eV was observed. The energy bandgap of PVA was diminished to 1.85 eV upon addition of black tea extract solution, lying in the range of small-bandgap polymers. Increase of the optical dielectric constant was observed with increasing tea solution addition. The results indicate that small-bandgap PVA with good film-forming ability could be useful in terms of cost-performance tradeoff, solving problems of short lifetime, cost, and flexibility associated with conjugated polymers. The decrease of the Urbach energy upon addition of black tea extract solution indicates modification of PVA from a disordered to ordered material. X-ray diffraction results confirm an increase of the crystalline fraction in the doped samples.