Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a potential photovoltaic technology based on La2MoO6/bio-carbon hybrid composite photoanodes with ~12.5% efficiency

Abstract

In this work, series of bio-carbon (BC) activated La2MoO6 nanoparticles were prepared by a traditional hydrothermal method. The La2MoO6 nanoparticles are composited with bio-graphene to serve as a low-cost electrode to improve photovoltaic performance for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The structural, morphological, optical and textural properties of the electrode samples were analyzed by using XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman, UV, PL and BET analysis. The La2MoO6/BC composite sample exhibits higher specific surface area (102.6 m2g−1) and larger total pore diameter (40.5 nm), compared with pure La2MoO6 (78.9 m2g−1 and 28.3 nm, correspondingly). The higher specific surface area provides more catalytic sites; thus, the DSSC assembled with a La2MoO6/BC composite electrode deliver power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.5%. This could be due to the narrowing of the band gap which prevents the recombination process of electron-hole pair. Moreover, the EIS analysis illustrates that La2MoO6/BC composite show high electron transfer efficiency and long life time than bare La2MoO6 electrode sample. This work provides new insights into the utilization of La2MoO6/BC based photoanode materials for high performance DSSC based applications.