Optical Properties of Novel Materials for Optoelectronic Applications

Energy generation and utilization have always been a prerequisite for human society, however, in the 21st century and after the pandemic of COVID-19 situations, the importance and demand for energy storage devices have been stretched to the next level. Smart energy storage devices are required to cover this indispensable demand so that the desired energy can judiciously be delivered whenever required. For this immense effort, a variety of materials, viz. carbonaceous materials, transition metal composites, conducting polymers, etc., are being employed by the scientific community, which are equipped with advanced performance, flexibility, tunability, portability, and cost-effectiveness. Apart from these specific features, these energy harvesting materials are associated with inherent properties such as high electrical and optical conductivity, which place them as a potential contender to be used in energy harvest and storage devices. These energy storage devices can be based on the electrochemical, electrical, and optical properties of these conductive materials. To be particular, in this review, the study is targeted at optically conductive materials. The optical conductivity of a material depends upon the band gap present in the conductive material under investigation, the lower the band gap, the higher the chance of optical conductivity. This band gap of the material depends upon factors such as the material used, dopant, solvent applied, etc. This review brings the detail of optically conductive materials, understanding the factors affecting the optical conductivity and the methods to enhancing it so that the variety of applications such as solar cells, optoelectronics, photoelectronic, etc., can be improved.