Effects of tin on the performance of ZnO photoanode for DSSC

Abstract

Tin Zinc Oxide thin films were deposited on transparent conductive oxide by chemical bath, at percentages of 5, 10 and 15% of tin (Sn) on the zinc oxide (ZnO) structure. All films were thermally treated to improve its crystallinity. The produced films with tin were characterized by x-ray diffraction and optical measurements, such as absorbance, transmittance and reflectance. The x-ray spectrum showed the formation of the ZnO wurtzite and the crystallite size of the films were calculated to be 53.74; 79.59 and 66.38 nm for the photoanodes at 5, 10 and 15% of tin (Sn), respectively, on the zinc oxide structure. The calculated band gap energy of the films revealed that the presence of tin can reduce the band gap energy to about 3.2 eV. Those films were used as photoanodes on dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) to observe the effects of the tin (Sn) on the photovoltaic activity of the zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor. Parameters such as efficiency and short circuit current density were particularly affected by the presence of tin in the composition, with the 5% Sn ZnO film presenting the best results of 7.56 % efficiency and 34.35 mA/cm2, short circuit current density, the other films presented lower values for efficiency, which can be attributed to lower values of short-current density.

Synthesis of TiO2/ZnO photoanodes on FTO conductive glass for photovoltaic applications

“…Other techniques like spray pyrolysis, co-precipitation, DC magnetron sputtering, sol-gel, spin coating, and thermal synthesis obtained sizes of 34.7, 32, 23.66, 42-47, and 14 nm [1,18,[33][34][35]. The large crystallite sizes in this work can be explained by the high concentration of titanium dioxide, above 10%, and the heat treatment at 450 °C [17]. Table II lists the specific surface area (SSA) [20].…”

“…1.17 This work 0.70 [27] 0.89 [15] 0.53 [28] 2.38 [44] 7.56 [17] complete evaporation of the liquid (water), without any additives at room temperature and with no auxiliary or additional devices. This method proved, by analysis such as X-ray diffraction, SEM, absorbance, and band gap, the formation of nanocrystalline-type wurtzite ZnO.…”

“…These results can be improved when combining ZnO with other oxide semiconductors. Many works have mixed ZnO with oxides containing elements such as tin (Sn), titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), cobalt (Co), and gallium (Ga), amongst others [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. TiO 2 is a viable option with ZnO due to similarities between the two oxides, like the band gap energy value, around 3.0 eV for TiO 2 and 3.2 eV for ZnO [19].…”

Thermodynamic and economic analysis of a novel solar heating crude oil system in oil refinery

“…The solar heating system for crude oil utilizes traditional oil heaters for preheating, coupled with renewable solar energy, to implement a low-carbon heating method. In this study, some operational data for the system is extracted from the literature [16], and the proposed system, illustrated in Figure 1, is configured with dish solar collectors [17,18]. One portion of the solar energy in the system is allocated to heating the crude oil, while the other portion is dedicated to electricity generation.…”

Effects of Lithium Salt on Optical and Structural Properties of ZnO Thin Films

“…This film can be doped by n-type and p-type elements in its structure. Titanium (IV), tin, and indium are some n-type doping elements [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Lithium is a p-type element with advantageous properties to be applied as a dopant, such as electrical mobility, energy harvesting, electrical resistivity, and lower charge leakage [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”