Synthesis of magnesium-doped TiO 2 photoelectrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications by solvothermal microwave
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Pure and magnesium-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) of three different concentrations (3, 6, and 9 mol%) were synthesized by a simple, cost effective solvothermal microwave irradiation method and characterized by XRD, EDAX, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV-Vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction studies performed on synthesized NPs have shown that the anatase phase is preserved after doping and the dopant does not change the crystalline phase (anatase) of the parent material (TiO2). TEM results revealed that the particle size was significantly reduced with increasing dopant concentration and are spherical in shape. For the J–V measurements, the devices were subjected to the simulated sun light of 100 mW/cm2 irradiation with a working electrode area of 0.25 cm2 (0.5 0.5 cm). The results show that the dye-sensitized solar cell based on a 3 mol% Mg-doped TiO2 electrode achieved a photoelectrical conversion efficiency of 7.36% which is perceptibly increased by 17.6% than undoped TiO2 (6.26%).
I. INTRODUCTION
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as pigments,1 paints,2 and sunscreens,3 for photocatalysis4,5 and photocatalytic fuel generation,6 and to form efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).7 DSSCs are directly under active examination as alternatives to silicon-based photovoltaic devices for solar energy use.8,9 They are thought to be a promising renewable source of nonpolluting energy as a result of their low-cost manufacturing process and high-power conversion efficiency.7,10 The performance of DSSCs has been based on the properties of semiconducting oxide layers.11,12 The coated semiconducting metal oxide layers increases the surface area which in turn increases the light harvesting. Among the different semiconductor materials used in DSSCs, nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 has been proven to be the best semiconductor photoanode material in DSSCs.13 Many efforts have been made to improve the power conversion efficiency (g) of TiO2-based DSSCs. Lots of new dye sensitizers have been designed and synthesized. Fine tuning of the conduction band (CB) edge of TiO2 positively is a feasible strategy to improve the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE). To achieve a high incident IPCE on TiO2, doping of metal atoms into TiO2 semiconducting materials is commonly adopted. a)
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2018.115
In recent years, TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are utilized as a working electrode for DSSCs because of their most astounding proficiency than some other metal oxide semiconductors. It appears that one of the conceivable approaches to manufacture more proficient cell is improvement in charge transfer in TiO2 and the doping would be the most promising solution for that. Doped TiO2 nanocrystalline materials (NPs/films) have been seriously examined over the past decade,14–22 and it was found that characteristics of DSSCs fabricated with doped TiO2 were strikingly better than those with immaculate TiO2. Doping of no
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