Research Paper: Fabrication of DSSCs Based on Ag-Decorated TiO2 Nanofiber Photoanodes

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Department of Physics, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran

2 Professor, S. U. Umarov Physical-Technical Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, Tajikistan Bogolubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, 141980, Moscow Region, Russia.

3 Assistant Professor, S. U. Umarov Physical-Technical Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are cheap and earth abundant solar cells that require novel ideas for further improvement. In this study, we use TiO2 nanofibers to fabricate the DSSCs photoanode. In order to isolate the transparent conductive oxide from the electrolyte species, we deposit a spin-coated TiO2 blocking layer. The characteristics of this cell are further improved by decorating the nanofibers with Ag nanoparticles which generate surface plasmonic resonances. It is shown that LSPRs increase the generated current in the cells by providing a higher light absorption and lower recombination. Our best cell showed an efficiency of 6.19%, which is a significant improvement in comparison to the bare DSSC with 4.84% efficiency.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] Shalini, S., Balasundaraprabhu, R., Kumar, T. S., Prabavathy, N., Senthilarasu, S., & Prasanna, S. Status and outlook of sensitizers/dyes used in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC): a review. International Journal of Energy Research, 40(10), 1303-1320, 2016.
[2] Zatirostami A., A new electrochemically prepared composite counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells, Thin Solid Films 701 (2020) 137926, 2020.
[3] Zainudin, S. N. F., Abdullah, H., & Markom, M. Electrochemical studies of tin oxide based-dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC): a review. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 30(6), 5342-5356, 2019.
[4] Saeidi, M., Abrari, M., & Ahmadi, M, Fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cell based on mixed tin and zinc oxide nanoparticles. Applied Physics A, 125(6), 409, 2019.
[5] Pal, A., Jana, A., Bhattacharya, S., & Datta, J., SPR effect of AgNPs decorated TiO2 in DSSC using TPMPI in the electrolyte: Approach towards low light trapping. Electrochimica Acta, 243, 33-43, 2017.
[6] Meng, L., & Li, C. Blocking layer effect on dye-sensitized solar cells assembled with TiO2 nanorods prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters, 3(2), 181-185, 2011.
[7]    Barakat, N. A., Akhtar, M. S., Yousef, A., El-Newehy, M., & Kim, H. Y., Pd–Co-doped carbon nanofibers with photoactivity as effective counter electrodes for DSSCs. Chemical engineering journal, 211, 9-15, 2012
[8]    Guo, M., Chen, J., Zhang, J., Su, H., Liu, L., Fu, N., & Xie, K, Coupling plasmonic nanoparticles with TiO2 nanotube photonic crystals for enhanced dye-sensitized solar cells performance. Electrochimica Acta, 263, 373-381, 2018.
[9] Goodarzi, M., F. Naderi, and D. Ghanbari. Preparation of hollow TiO2 nano-spheres, ZnO and Fe2O3 in sunscreens to absorb harmful ultra violet rays., Journal of Solar Energy Research 5(4), 594-602, 2020.
[10] Zatirostami A., Increasing the efficiency of TiO2-based DSSC by means of a double layer RF-sputtered thin film blocking layer, Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 207, 164419, 2020.
[11] Taherkhani, A., Z. Yavari, Investigation of the effect of silver nanoparticles on the photodiode performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, 2nd International Conference on Science and Engineering in the Age of Technology, 2016. (In Persian)
[12] Zatirostami A., Electro-deposited SnSe on ITO: A low-cost and high-performance counter electrode for DSSCs, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 844, 156151, 2020.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 09 December 2021
  • Revise Date: 09 April 2022
  • Accept Date: 10 May 2022

Share

How to cite

Statistics