Glycerol-supportive Y3+ infused TiO2 nanoparticles: An electrode material for dye sensitized solar cell and supercapacitor applications

Abstract

The present research objective is to synthesize an active electrode material for dual application of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and supercapacitors (SCs). In this study, aliovalent rare earth yttrium doped TiO2 nanomaterial with three different dopant concentration (1, 3 and 5 mol%) were synthesized in green synthesis approach employing solvothermal method using glycerol as a ligand and structure directing agent. Fabricated DSSC device with 5 mol% yttrium doped TiO2 as photoanode exhibited the maximum power conversion efficiency of 6.88% with Voc of 0.715 V, Jsc of 15.27 mA/cm2 and FF of 63.01%, when compared to other devices fabricated using photoanodes of pure TiO2, 1 and 3 mol% Y doped TiO2. Likewise for supercapacitor application, the specific capacitance of 5 mol% Y-TiO2 nanoparticles based working electrode studied from Cyclic Voltammetry analysis was 858.04 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s and from Galvanostatic Charging Discharging analysis it was 346.67 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. Furthermore, 5 mol% Y-TiO2 nanoparticles exhibited better cyclic stability and retained 84.01% efficiency of its initial specific capacitance even after 1000 cycles at 3 A/g. The electrochemical measurements show that 5 mol% Y-TiO2 nanoparticles have 95.7% coulombic efficiency. This research endeavor paves the way for the green synthesis of nanomaterials that can be utilized to fabricate electrodes of devices for energy conversion and storage application.