Abstract—Graphene has been proposed as a promising two-dimensional nanomaterial with outstanding electronic, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties for many applications. In the present work a process of developing nanocomposite structures of graphene with zinc oxide for applications of graphene in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been described. An alkaline reduced Graphene Oxide/ZnO nanocomposite (RGO/ZnO) films by various routs of dip coating chemical casting methods on a glass slide are synthesized. The characterization of these films indicates that there is strong bonding between RGO and ZnO, which will give well structured and quite stable nanocomposite. Photoluminescence spectrum results in broad range of excitations. The casting routs and conditions play an important role in the nanostructure and the photoluminescence properties of resulting nanocomposite. The overall characterization suggests that the RGO/ZnO nanocomposite is a promising nanomaterial for Solar cells having improved absorbance efficiency. It is concluded that RGO – ZnO nanocomposite very likely to play a major role in Photovoltaic or solar cell.

Index Terms—Graphene oxide, photoluminescence, ZnO, reduction.

P. S. Khare is with the Department of Physics, University Institute of Technology, Bhopal M.P., India (e-mail purnimaswarup@hotmail.com).
Rishikesh Yadav is with the School of nanotechnology, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidalaya, Bhopal, M.P., India.
Abhaya Swarup is with the Consultant World Bank Project on Renewable Energy.

Cite: P. S. Khare, Rishikesh Yadav, and Abhaya Swarup, "RGO-ZnO Nanocomposit Material of Enhanced Absorbance for Solar Energy Conversion," International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics  vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 95-97, 2013.