Construction of nickel molybdenum sulfide (NiMoS3)/bio carbon (BC) heterostructure photoanodes and optimization of light scattering to improve the photovoltaic performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Abstract

The prospective applications of dye-sensitized solar cells have sparked interest, but achieving high power conversion efficiency (PCE) while maintaining good stability is a difficulty. The development of highly active non-noble-metal electrocatalysts is critical for the future renewable energy system. The efficiency of DSSCs should be enhanced to encourage commercialization and large-scale application. This paper details significant advancements in advanced Nickel molybdenum sulfide (NiMoS3)/bio carbon (BC) nanocomposites, which is derived from aloe vera extract for improving photoanodes and DSSC conversion efficiencies. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Raman, UV–Vis (UV) spectra, Photoluminescence, and N2 adsorption-desorption studies were used to evaluate the synthesized electrode samples. According to the XRD and TEM data, NiMos3 has a nanocrystalline cubic structure with spherical shaped nanoparticles in the 20–40 nm size range uniformly adorned on the surface of BC nanosheets. The optical band gap energy of NiMoS3 and NiMoS3/BC composites was discovered to be 3.26 eV–2.81 eV using UV-DRS. The photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) and IPCE characteristics of constructed solar cells were investigated. The PCE of the NiMoS3/BC (NMSC5) nanocomposite DSSC was 8.850.003%, which was significantly higher than that of NiMoS3 (3.45% 0.003) and Pt CE (6.64 ± 0.002%). The DSSC based on NiMoS3/BC composite film (48.10.02 cm−2) has a much lower RCT value than the NiMoS3 based DSSCs (114.60.01 cm−2) (shown in able 2), indicating that the BC can promote electron transport, restrict charge recombination, and so improve the PCE of the fabricated DSSC.