Hoisting photovoltaic performance of perovskite BaSnO3 nanoparticles wrapped reduced graphene oxide: Efficient photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Inorganic perovskite nanostructure photoanode has a very important role in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC),in collecting photogenerated electrons coming from dye sensitizer. The photo-electric-conversion efficiency of photoelectrode is hindered by an effective photogenerated electron hole/pair. To avoid this problem, modification of BaSnO3 perovskite nanoparticles with graphene nanosheets is attempted in our work. Facile one-step synthesis of RGO loaded BaSnO3 (RGO-BaSnO3 NC) was done by simple solution route. As-prepared perovskite composite was studied using characterization techniques namely Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The photovoltaic performances of RGO-BaSnO3 NC-based photoanode in DSSC employing N719 dye, Pt-counter electrode and imidazole-based liquid electrolyte have been studied under standard simulated lighting of 100 mW cm−2. It was found that RGO-BaSnO3 NC showed better dye adsorption to facilitate light harvesting and promoted a proficient electron transport pathway owing to fewer electron trapping sites on the surface than the pristine BaSnO3 NPs surface. The results demonstrate that the fabricated DSSC made with RGO-BNC-based photoanode delivered overall photoelectric conversion efficiency of 5.59 %, which is 32 % higher than that of DSSC fabricated unmodified BaSnO3 photoanode.