Abstract
We report the efficiency enhancement in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using Er3+/Yb3+-co-doped Y2O3 (i.e., Y2O3:Er3+/Yb3+) phosphor nanoparticles, prepared by a simple and cost-effective urea-based homogeneous precipitation method, for efficient near-infrared (NIR) sunlight harvesting. Under the light excitation at a wavelength of 980 nm, the as-prepared samples exhibited strong upconversion emissions at green and red visible wavelengths. To investigate the influence of Y2O3:Er3+/Yb3+ nanoparticles on the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs, the phosphor nanoparticles were incorporated into titanium dioxide films to form a composite photoelectrode. For the resulting DSSCs, the increased power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.68 % was obtained mainly by the increased photocurrent of JSC = 13.68 mA/cm2 due to the light harvesting enhancement via the NIR-to-visible upconversion process (cf., PCE = 5.94 %, JSC = 12.74 mA/cm2 for the reference DSSCs without phosphor nanoparticles), thus, indicating the PCE increment ratio of ~12.4 %.
Highlights
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which can convert solar energy into electric energy by the photovoltaic effect, have been intensively studied as a promising candidate for the next-generation photovoltaic devices because of their simple structure, good stability, low manufacturing cost, and eco-friendly feature [1,2,3,4,5]
Over the past few years, significant progress in DSSCs has been achieved, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is still not satisfied compared to the silicon-based solar cells, which limits their further applications [6,7,8]
The PCE of the DSSCs is strongly dependent on the light absorption ability of dyes such as N3, N-719, N-749, etc., which usually absorb energy from the relatively narrow sunlight spectrum in the visible wavelength range of 400– 800 nm [3, 8]
Summary
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which can convert solar energy into electric energy by the photovoltaic effect, have been intensively studied as a promising candidate for the next-generation photovoltaic devices because of their simple structure, good stability, low manufacturing cost, and eco-friendly feature [1,2,3,4,5]. Over the past few years, significant progress in DSSCs has been achieved, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is still not satisfied compared to the silicon-based solar cells, which limits their further applications [6,7,8]. The introduction of upconverting nanoparticles into DSSCs devices was considered as an alternative method to improve the efficiency of DSSCs. In particular, the introduction of upconverting nanoparticles into DSSCs devices was considered as an alternative method to improve the efficiency of DSSCs Since they can convert the low energy photons (NIR light) into the high energy ones (visible light), the enhanced solar energy generation of DSSCs can be obtained due to the increased visible light absorption in dyes [12,13,14].
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