| Summary: | Mesoporous semiconductor film created through electrodeposition from lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) template are of great interest as they have great surface area-to volume ratio and have potential applications in solar cells and catalysis usage etc. In this project, a mesoporous composite film was created, with the idea that the use of mesoporous Polyaniline film as support for the deposition of mesoporous Copper (I) Oxide will be able to enhance the surface area and semiconductor properties of Copper (I) Oxide.
Liquid crystalline mixtures (solvent-surfactant) were characterized by the Polarized-light Optical Microscope and the optimum ratio to achieve hexagonal LLC phase was 50-50 wt%. Electrodeposited films, from the optimum ratio of liquid crystalline mixtures, were analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (wide and low angle), Scanning Electron Microscope and UV-Vis light absorption spectroscopy. d-spacings for Copper (I) Oxide and composite film were determined to be 8.8 nm (pore-to-pore distance of 10.2 nm) and band gaps of mesoporous Copper (I) Oxide and composite film were calculated to be 2.1 and 2.45 eV respectively.
Results have proved that the mesoporous composite film was successfully created, with hexagonal LLC structure within. While so, the performance of composite film as compared to non-mesoporous Copper (I) Oxide has not been established yet and for this, a set of samples are currently undergoing a series of tests, such as to determine the photovoltaic properties. These results might actually help to gain a better insight of how mesoporous films can enhance semiconductor’s optical/physical properties.
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