Improving the efficiency of dye sensitized solar cell with Titanium doping of Tin oxide photoanode

Abstract

In this article, tin oxide nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method and then deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by Dr. Blade method and dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was fabricated with tin oxide photoanode. To improve cell efficiency, the prepared photoanode was doped with titanium and the effect of Ti doping on physical properties and performance of DSSCs were investigated. The physical properties of the synthesized nanostructures were investigated by XRD, SEM, BET, and DRS analyses. Finally, DSSC solar cells were constructed from prepared photoanodes and current-voltage analysis was performed. The results showed that Ti doping affects the adsorption-desorption isotherm of the sample and increases the specific surface area significantly. Thus, specific surface area has increased from 36.23 m2/g for the SnO2 sample to 508.13 m2/g for the Ti doped sample. The results showed that the DSSC made with doped photoanode showed much better performance and titanium doping increased both the short circuit current and open circuit voltage. The titanium doped sample showed an increase in efficiency of about 2 times compared to the pure SnO2 photoanode.

Keywords

• dye sensitized solar cell
• nanoparticles
• tin oxide
• titanium doping