Enhanced electrochemical and photovoltaic performance for MoO3 nanorods at different calcination temperature based counter electrode in Pt-free dye-sensitized solar cells applications

Abstract

Owing to increase in energy demands and depletion in fossil fuels, solar energy conversion is the reliable and sustainable one for future. Among the solar energy conversion techniques, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have received much attention due to their ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness, reliable and high proficiency in converting solar energy. The commercialization of DSSC is still hindered by usage of expensive materials like platinum counter electrodes. Therefore, researchers are focusing on developing low-cost and earth abundant alternatives. The present work involves hydrothermal synthesis of molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) at various temperature ranges such as 400, 500, 600 and 700 °C and several other characterizations through various analytical techniques. On increasing the temperature range, the MoO3 forms nanorod like structure. The synthesized materials are employed as counter electrode in DSSC, showed enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) on increasing the calcination temperature range. The maximum PCE of 4.13% is obtained for MoO3 calcined at 600 °C, which is highly comparable with the high cost platinum CE based DSSC.