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Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells based on carbon-doped TiO2 hollow spheres and nanoparticles

Tabari Saadi, Y ; Sharif University of Technology | 2015

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1007/s10854-015-3567-1
  3. Publisher: Springer New York LLC , 2015
  4. Abstract:
  5. Different structures of TiO2 photoelectrodes are fabricated with various arrangement modes of the layers. TiO2 nanoparticles, synthesized by stabilizing agent free non-hydrolytic sol–gel method, are employed as the under layer, whereas carbon-doped TiO2 hollow spheres, prepared by hydrothermally grown carbon template, are used as the scattering layer of solar cells. The nanoparticles (22 nm) have anatase structure, while 300–700 nm hollow spheres show mixtures of anatase and rutile phases. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms that carbon is doped into TiO2 hollow spheres, resulting in a decrease in band gap energy in the range 2.96–3.13 eV compared with 3.04 eV band gap energy for the nanoparticles. The diffuse reflectance spectroscopy measurements show that the hollow spheres exhibit higher scattering property than the nanoparticles. The single layer solar cell made of nanoparticles and carbon-doped TiO2 hollow spheres shows the highest efficiency of 7.21 and 7.02 %, respectively. Further enhancement of photovoltaic performance is obtained by light scattering mechanism aided by fabrication of double layer solar cells due to higher incident photon-to-current conversion and less recombination. The double layer solar cell made of nanoparticles as the under layer and hollow spheres (containing 86 % anatase–14 % rutile) as the scattering layer shows the highest efficiency of 8.55 %
  6. Keywords:
  7. Dye-sensitized solar cells ; Energy gap ; Light scattering ; Nanoparticles ; Oxide minerals ; Photons ; Solar power generation ; Sols ; Spheres ; Synthesis (chemical) ; Titanium dioxide ; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy ; Anatase structures ; Current conversion ; Different structure ; Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy ; Photovoltaic performance ; Scattering mechanisms ; Scattering property ; Stabilizing agents ; Solar cells
  8. Source: Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics ; Volume 26, Issue 11 , 2015 , Pages 8863-8876 ; 09574522 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10854-015-3567-1