Enhancing the short circuit current of a Dye-Sensitized Solar cell and photocatalytic dye degradation using Cr doped SrTiO3 interconnected spheres

Abstract

In this work, different concentration of Cr doped SrTiO3 has been synthesized by co-precipitation technique and employed as a photoanode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) by optimizing the Cr concentration. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and UV–vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) are used to examine the crystalline structure, shape, size, composition and optical response of the synthesized samples. Current density-Voltage (J-V) spectra reveal that Cr-STO-7 cell achieved the highest short circuit current (JSC) of 8.6 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.71 V and efficiency (η) of 3.71% whereas bare SrTiO3 (STO) achieved only the JSC of 5.7 mA/cm2, VOC of 0.54 V and η of 0.94%. The improvement is due to the lower charge transfer resistance (RCT) and charge recombination. It also serves as an effective material for Methylene Blue (MB) dye degradation. Among the samples, Cr-STO-7 achieved the highest photocatalytic efficiency of 88% under visible light illumination.