Increasing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells by NiCoP/g-C 3 N 4 hybrid composite photoanodes by facile hydrot
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Increasing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells by NiCoP/g-C3N4 hybrid composite photoanodes by facile hydrothermal approach S. P. Saravanan 1 & M. Nagoor Meeran 2 Received: 29 July 2020 / Revised: 2 September 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this work, bimetallic phosphide NiCoP was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method using red phosphorus as the P source. Then, NiCoP was anchored on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets via physical grinding followed by calcination. XRD and TEM results suggest that NiCoP has hexagonal crystalline structure with spherical-shaped nanoparticles (25–30 nm), which is uniformly wrapped on the 2D-g-C3N4 nanosheets. The NiCoP/g-C3N4 hybrid composite shows high surface area (105.46 m2/g) and porous nature (11.25 nm) than compared with bare NiCoP (58.51 m2/g and 34.71 nm). UV–Vis spectroscopy shows that the enhancement of absorption spectrum in the UV region with red shift was observed in the composite samples. Furthermore, the energy level difference between NiCoP and g-C3N4 generated a potential barrier that prevented the recombination of the electrons in the NiCoP conduction band with the I3− ions in the electrolyte. The optimal composite photoanode (NCPG-3) exhibits outstanding photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.24%, which exceeds the single NiCoP (4.54%) and is on par with the standard Pt CE (7.12%) under same conditions. This work provides new insights into the utilization of NiCoP/g-C3N4–based photoanode materials for high-performance DSSC–based applications. Keywords NoCoP . g-C3N4 . High surface area . Photo-conversion . Electron-hole separation . DSSC
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 shows a significant potential to generate sustainable energy, which is in favor 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, dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable
* S. P. Saravanan [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry, Nandha Arts and Science College, Erode, Tamil Nadu 638 052, India
2
Department of Chemistry, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed University), Avadi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600 062, India
attention in the field of renewable energy. The standard DSSCs consist of a dye-adsorbed mesoporous titania photoanode, an electrolyte containing triiodide/iodide (I3−/I−) redox couple, and a counter electrode (CE). The CE serves to collect electrons from the external circuit and catalyze the reduction of redox couple for regenerating dye [5–7]. DSSC
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