| A novel heterostructure of Cr-doped TiO2 for reducing the recombination rate of dye sensitized solar cells |
| Muhammad Ilyas Yasin1,2, M. I. Khan1, Shamsa Kanwal1, Dalil Bulayis N. ALResheedi3, Mahvish Fatima3, Norah Alwadai4, El Sayed Yousef5,6, Ihtisham-ul-haq 1, Munawar Iqbal7 |
1Department of Physics, The University of Lahore, Lahore, 53700, Pakistan
2Acadiana, Crime Laboratory, Louisiana, LA, USA
3Department of Physics, College of Science, Qassim University, Buraidah, 51452, Saudi Arabia
4Department of Physics, College of Sciences, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
5Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, 61413, Abha, Saudi Arabia
6Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P. O. Box 9004, Abha, Saudi Arabia
7Department of Chemistry, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan |
|
|
|
Received: November 7, 2023; Revised: March 1, 2024 Accepted: March 14, 2024. Published online: April 17, 2024. |
|
|
|
| ABSTRACT |
|
According to reports, a unique method to improve the efficiency of titanium dioxide (TiO2) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) involves inserting foreign ions into the material’s lattice structure before forming the heterostructure. The sol–gel technique has been used to produce films of TiO2, Cr–TiO2, TiO2@Cr–TiO2, and Cr–TiO2@TiO2. A small quantity of rutile phase with the anatase phase was observed in heterostructures, and XRD validated the anatase phase of pure Cr–TiO2@TiO2, which contains a large grain size (46 nm). SEM presents numerous well-formed, homogenous grains in the structure of Cr–TiO2@TiO2, providing a large surface area for dye loading in DSSCs. Among all samples, Cr–TiO2@TiO2 exhibits a small band gap (Eg) (3.2 eV), and high transmittance in the visible spectrum has been observed by UV–Vis spectroscopy. The Cr–TiO2@TiO2 cell demonstrates high Jsc (7.69 mA-cm-2), Voc (0.79 V), and efficiency (4.57%). The small recombination resistance, verified from EIS, is responsible for this high efficiency. |
| Key words:
TiO2 · Solar cells · Heterostructure · Doping · X-ray diffraction |
|
PDF Links 
Full text via DOI
Download Citation 
