Improving open‐circuit voltage in DSSCs using Cu‐doped TiO₂ as a semiconductor

Abstract

TiO2 doping has been widely used in photocatalysis and photovoltaic cells to improve the performance of this semiconductor. This paper studies the use of copper as a dopant in TiO2 in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSC), analysing the effect on the photovoltaic properties of the cells of different concentrations of copper incorporated into the semiconductor. The copper‐doped TiO2 semiconductor was characterized with several instrumental techniques, including X‐ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP‐AES), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and UV–Vis spectroscopy in order to know its structure, composition and band gap energies with different concentrations of the dopant. An analysis was also performed of the variations in open‐circuit voltage depending on the concentration of copper. This showed that the presence of copper in DSSCs made with a standard configuration – using a ruthenium complex (N3) as a dye and the redox pair ${\rm I}^{- } {\rm /I}_{{\rm 3}}^{- } $ as the electrolyte with 3‐methoxypropionitrile as a solvent – leads to improvements of up to 10% in the open‐circuit voltage of DSSCs.

Properties of transition metal doped-titania electrodes: Impact on efficiency of amorphous and nanocrystalline dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Doping deteriorates the efficiency of DSSCs made by amorphous TiO 2 powders. Structural analysis showed that (Mn, Co and Cu) doping anatase TiO 2 powders [19] and they explained this decline by the charge recombination which occured related to trap density of TiO 2 electrodes with (Co and Cu) ions doping. The increase of V oc with Co and Cu doping is caused by the increase of the structural disorder that promotes the extension of the space charge region in the semiconductor due to the decrease of oxygen vacancy concentration at the TiO 2 surface [40].…”

“…On the other hand, they illustrate that lower efficiency values were obtained for Mn-doped TiO 2 (1.85%) and Co-doped TiO 2 (1.06%). In fact, Navas et al [19] showed that the presence of copper as a dopant in TiO 2 , in DSSCs made with a standard configuration, leads to an improvement up to 10% in the open-circuit voltage of DSSCs.…”

Evaluation of surface energy state distribution and bulk defect concentration in DSSC photoanodes based on Sn, Fe, and Cu doped TiO2

“…Although the study of Fe doped TiO 2 is well documented, limited spectroscopic data has been reported. Sn [16,37] and Cu [38] doped TiO 2 have been used as effective oxide layers with significant enhancement in charge transport for DSSC applications but with limited study on charge decay kinetics. Duan et al [16] obtained a photoelectric conversion efficiency enhancement of 12.0 % over pure TiO 2 with Sn doped TiO 2 electrodes.…”

Facile synthesis and characterization of Ti (1−x) Cu x O 2 nanoparticles for high efficiency dye sensitized solar cell applications

“…The results showed that the open circuit voltage (V oc ) of Cu doped TiO 2 electrode enhances significantly. However, in that case, the cell efficiency of doped TiO 2 was shown to be lesser than that of pure TiO 2 [33]. Keeping these in view, in the present work, we report convenient preparation strategy for Ti (1Àx) Cu x O 2 (x ¼ 0.00.…”