Design and fabrication of carbon dots decorated WO 3 nanosheets hybrid photoanodes for sunlight-driven dye-sensitized so
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Design and fabrication of carbon dots decorated WO3 nanosheets hybrid photoanodes for sunlight‑driven dye‑sensitized solar cell applications S. Padmanathan1 · A. Prakasam2 Received: 1 June 2020 / Accepted: 13 July 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This work demonstrates the selection of the substrates to be used for photoanode and counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). A novel carbon dots (CDs) decorated W O3 nanosheets hybrid structure was synthesized by facile hydrothermal route, which acts as a photoanode materials: counter electrode (Pt) and iodide/triiodide (I−/I3−). Sun stimulator (AM 1.5G, 100 mW/cm2) is used as source of light to evaluate the photovoltaic characteristics. The samples using various mass ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) of CDs and W O3 were prepared under the same conditions. The monoclinic structure with sheet-like morphology of WO3 was identified by XRD, Raman and TEM measurements. The optimized CDs/WO3 (1:3) photoanode exhibits a huge surface area (102.4 m2/g) and porous size (12 nm) since the CDs are rapidly anchored on the W O3 nanosheets. Due to the high absorption ability that prevents the recombination rate of the electron–hole pair, the optimized CDs/WO3 (1:3) photoanode delivers a high photoconversion efficiency of 11.7%, which is 3.35 times better than that of bare WO3 (3.5%). The improved photoconversion efficiency of WO3 by carbon was also discussed in detail.
1 Introduction Energy scarcity and environmental pollution are two major obstacles for further development of human society [1, 2]. Many researchers throughout the globe have focused on developing highly efficient and low-cost photovoltaic devices to endure the present and future energy crisis issues. The photovoltaics can effectively convert sunlight into electrical power and show a significant potential to generate sustainable energy, which is in favors of reducing the emission of greenhouse gas and the fossil fuel usage [3, 4]. Benefitting from low cost, eco friendliness and high power conversion efficiency, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention in the field of renewable energy. The standard DSSC consists of a dye-adsorbed mesoporous titania photoanode, an electrolyte containing triiodide/iodide
* A. Prakasam [email protected] 1
Department of Physics, Selvamm Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Namakkal, Tamilnadu 637003, India
PG and Research Department of Physics, Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College, Rasipuram, Tamilnadu 637401, India
2
(I3−/I_) redox couple, and a counter electrode (CE). The CE serves to collect electrons from the external circuit and catalyzes the reduction of redox couple for regenerating dye [5–7]. DSSC research begins with TiO2 by Gratzel’s group, and now TiO2 becomes the preferred semiconductor material due to its peculiar promising properties and later considered as the model DSSC system. The use of T iO2 with high internal surface area to support the adsorption of
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