The pure CdO, pure ZnO, and CdO‐ZnO composite films are successfully prepared by simple chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. XRD reveals a polycrystalline nature of CdO‐ZnO nanocomposite. The SEM micrograph depicts porous web network like morphology of CdO‐ZnO nanocomposite and EDX shows good agreement of elements. CdO‐ZnO nanocomposite shows maximum response of 29.11% under optimum operating temperature of 275˚C at 24 ppm ethanol gas concentration.
The present paper reports the study of synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline rutile titanium dioxide thin film. TiO2 is an excellent semiconducting nanomaterial used to enhance the efficiency of DSSC. TiO2 thin film is prepared by single‐step hydrothermal route. Titanium (IV) isopropoxide is used as a precursor for titanium. In this synthesis, TiO2 thin film is grown on fluorine‐doped tin oxide substrate (F:SnO2) at 140 °C temperature for 3 h. Morphological, structural, and optical properties are analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), energy dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy (EDS), and UV–vis spectrophotometer, respectively. Morphological analysis gives the growth of 3D nanoflowers on 1D nanorods. Also, it gives the formation of nanorods with width ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 µm and length of ∼3.5 µm. XRD pattern reveals that, there is formation of tetragonal rutile crystal structure having crystallite size 19 nm. The structural and elemental composition is determined by FT‐IR and EDS. The FT‐IR technique is used to confirm the Ti‐O bond formation at 407, 760, and 886 cm−1. The optical study reveals indirect band gap energy of 3 eV. The optical absorption of synthesized TiO2 thin film is mainly in the ultraviolet region. The enhancement of the photoelectrochemical activity allowed substitution of the TiO2 nanoflower/nanorod thin film for the traditional TiO2 nanorods used in solar cells.
The one-step hydrothermal method was used to synthesize Sn-doped TiO2 (Sn-TiO2) thin films, in which the variation in Sn content ranged from 0 to 7-wt % and, further, its influence on the performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) photoanode was studied. The deposited samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, which confirmed the existence of the rutile phase of the synthesized samples with crystallite size ranges in between 20.1 to 22.3 nm. In addition, the bare and Sn-TiO2 thin films showed nanorod morphology. A reduction in the optical band gap from 2.78 to 2.62 eV was observed with increasing Sn content. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed Sn4+ was successfully replaced at the Ti4+ site. The 3-wt % Sn-TiO2 based DSSC showed the optimum efficiency of 4.01%, which was superior to 0.87% of bare and other doping concentrations of Sn-TiO2 based DSSCs. The present work reflects Sn-TiO2 as an advancing material with excellent capabilities, which can be used in photovoltaic energy conversion devices.
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