Improved electron density through hetero-junction binary sensitized TiO 2 / CdTe / D719 system as photoanode for dye sensitized solar cell
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Abstract
The combined effect of dual sensitization and hetero-junction symmetry has been investigated on the performance of TiO2 based dye sensitized solar cell. CdTe nanoparticles have been introduced in TiO2 matrix to function as sensitizer as well as act as hetero-junction between D719 dye and TiO2 nanoarchitecture. Four concentrations of CdTe i.e. 0.5 wt%, 2 wt%, 5 wt% and 8 wt% have been investigated. Morphological and compositional studies have been conducted using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. Light absorption characteristics have been investigated by employing Uv–vis spectroscopy and the overall performance has been studied using solar simulator and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Performance has been found to be increased with the addition of CdTe due to high electron density and reduction in recombination reactions. An increase of 41.73% in incident photo conversion efficiency (IPCE) and 75.57% in short circuit current density (Jsc) have been recorded for the specimens containing 5 wt% CdTe compared to bare TiO2 based DSSCs. Further addition of CdTe leads to reduction in overall performance of DSSCs.
Keywords
CdTe, DSSC, Dual sensitization, Electron transfer, Hetero-junction
Divisions
umpedac
Funders
UM Power Energy Dedicated Advanced Centre (UMPEDAC),Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) Program Research Grant,UMPEDAC - 2016 ( MOHE HICOE - UMPEDAC )
Publication Title
Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures
Volume
101
Publisher
Elsevier