A study of the band gap of sensitized titanium dioxide nanoparticles and their photovoltaic applications

Abstract

This study examined the absorbance of ruthenium-doped nanocrystalline titanium dioxide and its application to dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Avaspec 2.1 spectrophotometer revealed that ruthenium-dyed TiO2 can absorb light beyond the ultraviolet region. The well-known Tauc model was employed to determine the optical band gap. We observed that the optical band gap of the sensitized TiO2 was reduced, thus enabling the absorbance of the wide-band-gap semiconductor in the visible region. The energy conversion efficiency of the DSSC prepared from the ruthenium-dyed TiO2 anode electrode was 1.71%.