Scribd
Upload
39 views5 pages

EPT 412 - Photoconductivity Notes

The document discusses photoconductive polymers, which increase in electrical conductivity when exposed to light, and their applications in light-sensitive devices and photocopying. It explains the mechanisms of photoconductivity, including the absorption of light, generation of charge carriers, and carrier transport within the polymer. Additionally, it touches on solid-state nuclear track detectors and luminescent solar concentrators as related technologies.

Uploaded by

Eddy Tanga
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
39 views5 pages

EPT 412 - Photoconductivity Notes

The document discusses photoconductive polymers, which increase in electrical conductivity when exposed to light, and their applications in light-sensitive devices and photocopying. It explains the mechanisms of photoconductivity, including the absorption of light, generation of charge carriers, and carrier transport within the polymer. Additionally, it touches on solid-state nuclear track detectors and luminescent solar concentrators as related technologies.

Uploaded by

Eddy Tanga
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

DEPARTMENT OF POLYMER TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING

EPT 412-SPECIALTY POLYMERS NOTES


PHOTOCONDUCTIVE POLYMERS
imuguti@hit.ac.zw
Photoconductivity, the increase in the electrical conductivity of certain materials when
they are exposed to light of sufficient energy. Photoconductivity serves as a tool to
understand the internal processes in these materials, and it is also widely used to detect
the presence of light and measure its intensity in light-sensitive devices.

Certain crystalline semiconductors, such as silicon, germanium, lead sulfide, and


cadmium sulfide, and the related semimetal selenium, are strongly photoconductive.
Normally, semiconductors are relatively poor electrical conductors because they have
only a small number of electrons that are free to move under a voltage. Most of the
electrons are bound to their atomic lattice in the set of energy states called
the valence band. But if external energy is provided, some electrons are raised to the
conduction band, where they can move and carry current. Photoconductivity ensues
when the material is bombarded with photons of sufficient energy to raise electrons
across the band gap, a forbidden region between the valence and conduction bands.

Because the current ceases when the light is removed, photoconductive materials form
the basis of light-controlled electrical switches. These materials are also used to
detect infrared radiation in military applications such as guiding missiles to heat-
producing targets. Photoconductivity has broad commercial application in the process
of photocopying, or xerography, which originally used selenium but now relies on
photoconductive polymers.

Photoconductivity is the increase in electrical conductivity of a material caused by


absorption of electromagnetic radiation. Photoconductive polymers are typically very
good insulators in the dark, when the carrier(s) of electricity, free electrons and/or holes,
are virtually absent. They become more conductive when exposed to light. In order to
become a photoconductor, the polymer must satisfy two major requirements:
1. It must absorb light and thus allow photoexcitation of electrons from the ground state.
The vacancy left behind (a hole) and the photoexcited electron form a pair of charge
carriers, which can be separated by the action of an electric field.
2. It must allow migration of either photoexcited electrons or holes, or both, through the
polymer in the electric field towards the appropriate electrodes. Since no ions move and
matter is not displaced, the conduction process is wholly electronic, with no ionic
contribution.

Polymers that do not absorb light of a particular wavelength can still support migration of
charge carriers generated in an adjacent material. In such a case the polymers act merely
as charge-transporting media.
Since most known organic photoconductive polymers absorb only ultraviolet radiation,
extrinsic photogeneration of charges has to be employed to make those polymers active
in visible light, and in most practical organic photo conductors the polymers are only
charge-transporting media for charges photogenerated in adjacent photoconductors.
Photoconductive and charge-transporting polymers can be either p-type or n-type,
depending on the 'majority' carrier. Only in the special cases discussed below can
polymers be bipolar, i.e. capable of trans-porting both electrons and holes with
comparable mobilities. However, most known photoconductive polymers are p-type; they
can transport only holes.
One of the often neglected factors that influences the performance and efficiency of
polymeric photoconductors is the nature of the electrodes used. Some electrodes,
typically those with low work functions, can inject holes into photoconductive and charge-
transporting polymers. With these so-called 'Ohmic' electrodes, the system will exhibit
electronic conduction due to migration of injected charges even in the dark when no free
carriers are generated in the polymer. In the presence of light that is absorbed by the
polymer, the injected carriers add to those that are
photogenerated in the bulk of the polymer. Alternatively, when 'blocking' electrodes are
used, i. e. those that do not inject charges into the polymer, the same polymer may appear
to be a good insulator in the dark and a good conductor in the light. For each known
photoconductive polymer, there exists a whole spectrum of electrodes ranging from
perfectly Ohmic to perfectly blocking. Therefore in studies of steady-state
photoconductivity one has to determine the role of electrodes before making any
judgement about the quality of the photoconductor.
The development of organic polymeric photoconductors was stimulated by the discovery
that poly(N-vinylcarbazole), sensitized by certain dyes and pigments, displays high
enough photoconductivity to be usable in electrophotographic photoreceptors. Since
then, hundreds of photoconductive polymeric compositions have been disclosed in the
patent and open literature (for references see the reviews. Unfortunately, the description
of photoconductivity in these polymers was often limited to statements indicating that the
polymers show photoconductivity 'as good' or 'better' than PVK, or at best some steady-
state measurements were performed, often without reference to the nature of electrodes,
the light source etc.
Principle of photoconductive

Absorption of Radiation

The first step to a charge carrier generation is the absorption of radiation.


Photoconductive materials are truly photoconductive only in the range of wavelength of
absorption. Thus PVK is a photoconductor only in the UV range. To produce carriers by
visible light sensitizing dyes or electron acceptors forming coloured charge transfer
complexes must be added.

Generation of Charge Carriers

 By the absorption of light the active groups are excited and form closely bound
electron–hole pairs. The key process that determines the overall photogeneration
efficiency is the field induced separation into free charge carriers. This process
competes with the geminate recombination of the electron–hole pair.

Injection of Carriers

 An injection of carriers only occurs if an extrinsic photogenerator is used together


with a charge transporting material. Usually dye particles are dispersed in a
polymer matrix or evaporated on top of a conductive substrate and then covered
with the charge transporting polymer. The carriers are generated in the visible
light-absorbing material and injected into the polymer.

Carrier Transport

The photogenerated charge carriers move within the polymer under the influence of the
electric field. In this process the photoconductive species, for example carbazole groups
in PVK, pass electrons to the electrode in the first step and thereby become cation
radicals. The transport of carriers can now be regarded as a thermally activated hopping
process, in which the hole hops from one localized site to another in the general
direction of the electric field (Figure A). The moving cation radical can accept an
electron from the neighbouring neutral carbazole group which in turn becomes a hole,
and so on. Effectively the hole moves within the material while electrons only jump
among neighbouring species.

SOLID STATE NUCLEAR TRACK DETECTOR

 A solid – state nuclear track detector is a section of a solid(glass, crystal, plastic)


material exposed to nuclear radiations(neutrons or charged particles or gamma
rays).

 These are chemically etched and checked through electron microscope.

PRINCIPLE OF SSNTD

• When a heavily ionising charged particle passes through such insulating solids, it
leaves a narrow trail of damage about 50 Å in diameter along its path.

• This is called ‘Latent Track’ as it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is possible
to view this latent track with an electron microscope.

• These latent tracks can be enlarged by etching with some chemicals such as
sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid which leads to the formation of etch pit
cones and can be observed by optical microscope.
• The number of tracks, (T), is proportional to the number of target atoms (n), the
flux (φ), the reaction cross section (σ), and the time of irradiation (t).

LUMINESCENT SOLAR CONCENTRATOR

A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a device for concentrating radiation, solar


radiation in particular, to produce electricity. Luminescent solar concentrators operate
on the principle of collecting radiation over a large area, converting it by luminescence
(commonly specifically by fluorescence) and directing the generated radiation into a
relatively small output target.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy