International Journal of Chemistry; Vol. 9, No. 4; 2017 ISSN 1916-9698 E-ISSN 1916-9701 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 71 Creation of Hybrid Photoactive Inorganic/Organic Interface Assemblies of Cadmium Oxide mixtures (CdO 2 /CdO)/Poly-2,2-Bithiophene; Optical and Photoelectrochemical Investigations Kasem K. Kasem 1 , Henry Worley 1 , Ashley Lovins 1 1 School of Sciences, Indiana University Kokomo, USA Correspondence: Kasem K. Kasem, School of Sciences, Indiana University Kokomo, USA. Received: September 25, 2017 Accepted: October 15, 2017 Online Published: October 17, 2017 doi:10.5539/ijc.v9n4p71 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijc.v9n4p71 Abstract Nanoparticles of cadmium peroxide (CdO 2 ) were immobilized in poly 2,2 bithiophene (PBTh) to build photoactive inorganic/organic interfaces (I/O/I). Studies indicated that the CdO 2 initially immobilized in the organic polymer partially decomposed to a low band gap CdO. Therefore we refer to this mixture as CdO 2 /CdO. The CdO 2 /CdO/PBTh assemblies were subjected to optical and photoelectrochemical investigations in aqueous electrolytes containing acetate, nitrate, or phosphate. The equilibrium mixture of CdO 2 /CdO influenced the optical conductivity and dielectric contents of the assemblies. Furthermore, O 2 played an important role in the charge separation and transfer processes. The effects of an applied magnetic field were investigated and reported. The results were explained on the basis of formation of hybrid sub-bands due to band alignments between the assembly components. The photo-induced charge generation of PBTh was improved by occlusion of CdO 2 in the polymer as was evident by the greater photocurrent generated by CdO 2 /CdO/PBTh than that generated by PBTh. Keyword: cadmium, photoelectrochemistry, bithiophene, interfaces, semiconductors, magnetism 1. Introduction Transition metal peroxides can be used as a source of oxygen in organic synthesis. They can also be used in sensor building, and for catalysis (Zhou X.P. et al, 2003). Oxidation of aniline using cadmium oxide (CdO) has been reported (Karunakaran C. et al 2005). The high evaporation temperature of CdO, eliminates the toxicity risk of Cd-based oxides (Lu H.B. et al 2008). Polycrystalline thin films of cadmium oxide and cadmium titanate were prepared by the sol-gel method (ReYesa M.E. et al 2012), and further subjected to optical, structural, and crystalline property investigations. Several methods for preparation of CdO 2 were reported (Elmaghrabya E.K. et al 2014, Liu Y. et al 2009, Kavasoglu N. et al 2009, Xiaofei H. et al 2005, and Huffman C. W. W et al 1959). Building hybrid interfaces such as at the hetero-junction of inorganic/organic (IOI) or organic/organic interfaces (OOI) is an effective method of surface modification. Controlled creation or elimination of surface defects can be achieved by building interfaces between photo-and catalytically-active materials. The charge production, separation, and transfer at these interfaces were the subject of several investigations (Akira T. et al 2011, Zing H.P. et al 2005, Braun X. S. et al 2007, Wan A. et al, 2005, Osikowiez W. et al 2007). The goal of this investigation was to decipher the alignment of energy bands at organic/organic or inorganic/organic interfaces. Interfacing some transition metal oxides and chalcogenides with organic semiconductors was performed (Kasem K. et al, 2016 and 2017, Beck P et al 1992, Dela E.C. et al 2015). The moderate band gap of cadmium-based binary compounds is a promising property for the harvesting of solar radians in the visible range. Cadmium oxides have excellent optical and optoelectrical characteristics. They also have selective catalytic properties that make them suitable for use in industrial capacities such as the photodegradation of toxic organic compounds, dyes, pigments and other environmental pollutants (Karunakaran C. et al, 2009, Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh A. et al, 2011, and Saravanan R et al, 2011). The lack of photoelectrochemical studies on cadmium peroxide, CdO 2 , drove our interest to explore the photoelectrochemical behavior of a photoactive cadmium oxides/poly-2,2-bithiophene or CdO 2 /CdO/PBTh assembly. In this work, the inorganic CdO 2 /CdO nanoparticles were immobilized in a photoactive host organic polymer PBTh using the occlusion electrodeposition (OE) method. We investigated the extent to which the occlusion of CdO 2 /CdO in PBTh influenced the photo-induced charge separation and further charge transfer process. Furthermore, we determined the optical parameters such as optical conductivity (σ opt. ), optical absorption coefficient (α), refractive index (n),