Influence of $$\hbox {TiO}_{2}$$ TiO 2 particle size and conductivity of the CuCrO $$_{2}$$ 2 nanoparticles on the performance of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells have been fabricated with mesoporous TiO 2 photoanode and N719 dye as photosensitizer. First, TiO 2 and non-doped, Zn-and Mg-doped CuCrO 2 nanoparticles have been synthesized by sol-gel method. In addition, the TiO 2 pastes have been prepared through Pechini-type sol-gel method. The effect of TiO 2 particle size, mesoporous TiO 2 photoanode thickness and solid-state electrolyte thickness on the efficiency of the fabricated devices has been investigated. Our results show that in spite of the low amount of dye loading for photoanode with large TiO 2 nanoparticles (80-180 nm), the dye-sensitized solar cell made from it has higher efficiency than that constructed from the photoanode comprising of small particles about 10-15 nm in size. The higher efficiency is attributed to the longer diffusion length of electrons because of a better electron transport and penetration of a large amount of CuCrO 2 nanoparticles in the porous structure of TiO 2 photoanode. By using the doped CuCrO 2 nanoparticles, the efficiency has been increased from 0.027% for TiO 2 /N719 dye/CuCrO 2 to 0.033% for TiO 2 /N719 dye/CuCrO 2 :Zn and further increased to 0.042% for TiO 2 /N719 dye/CuCrO 2 :Mg. The efficiency enhancement by doping is ascribed to the conductivity improvement due to the presence of impurity atoms.

Mg Doped CuCrO2 as Efficient Hole Transport Layers for Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Several experimental studies also confirm that Mg doping increases electrical conductivity [31,35,36,37]. In p -type DSSCs, Mg doped CCO (Mg:CCO) has performed superior to undoped CCO [38,39].…”