Construction of High Efficient g-C3N4 Nanosheets Combined with Bi2MoO6 Photoanodes for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

In this study, two narrow band gap semiconductor nanomaterials, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and Bi2MoO6, were selected and coupled to form series of g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 photoanodes. The existence of strong interfacial interactions between g-C3N4 and Bi2MoO6 were extensively characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–Vis DRS) and Photoluminescence (PL). XRD and TEM results suggest that Bi2MoO6 belongs to orthorhombic crystal structure with fiber like morphology with average diameter of 20–30 nm and length up to several micrometers. Sandwich type solar cell was fabricated by deposition the hybrid materials on FTO glass substrate and technically studied the photovoltaic (PV) parameters through J–V characteristics. The results express that g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 hybrid photoanode show fabulous photo conversion efficiency (PCE) of (13.56%), excellent stability and reusability. The superior photovoltaic performance of g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite was owing to the interface of g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 heterostructures whereas reduced the band-gap which enables high separation efficiency, suppressed recombination rate of charge carriers and their high specific surface area (103.56 m2/g). A possible photovoltaic mechanism under sun light was systematically discussed based on the experiment results.