Development of activated carbon-doped TiO2 nanoparticle thin film for application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Carbon This research aims to study the preparation of activated carbon-doped TiO2 nanoparticle thin films with basellaceae, malvaceae and hylocereus dyes for application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The physical and chemical properties of as-prepared thin films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis DRS) techniques. Results revealed that the basellaceae dye (JSC is 13.5 mA/cm2, VOC is 0.450 V and η (%) is 1.59) on thin film showed the highest efficiency compared with the malvaceae (JSC is 10.2 mA/cm2, VOC is 0.425 V and η (%) is 1.08) and hylocereus (JSC is 12.1 mA/cm2, VOC is 0.325 V and η (%) is 1.17) dyes. Moreover, we observed that activated carbon/TiO2 nanoparticle thin film exhibited a higher efficiency than other thin film samples. This might be due to the activated carbon doped into the TiO2 leading to facilitate the separation of photogenerated charge carriers, resulting in its enhanced efficiency.