Intriguing CeO2–TiO2 hybrid nanostructured photoanode resulting up to 46% efficiency enhancement for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The harvesting of electrical energy from sunrays with low cost, clean form and prosperity is an excellent progression. In this context, significant advancement has been made in the solar energy area in terms of cell's design to enhance efficiency. Light scattering may benefit solar cells in this aspect by extending the travelling distance of light within the photoelectrode film. In this work, dextran templating high-surface-area contained CeO2 nanoparticles (~22 nm) were employed to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a TiO2-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs). Various physicochemical techniques were investigated to characterize the synthesized CeO2 nanoparticles. Synthesized cubic CeO2 nanoparticles were further explored as an additional layer on the top of the synthesized anatase TiO2 nanocube based film to fabricate CeO2–TiO2 hybrid photoanode, encouraging light scattering in DSSCs. A comparative study was undertaken to understand the effect of the CeO2 layer on the synthesized and standard anatase TiO2. The overall power conversion efficiency obtained for hybrid photoanode-based DSSC is 8.92%, ~46% higher than that of TiO2 nanocubes-based photoanode, with a considerably improved open-circuit voltage of 0.83 V under 1 SUN AM 1.5 . In addition, the PCE enhancement is observed only ~8% using standard TiO2 based photoanode under the same condition. The photovoltaic performance highlights that dextran templating CeO2 nanoparticle exhibits a significant impact as the light scattering layer and heterojunction formation when incorporating on top of the anatase TiO2 nanocube resulting in a hybrid photoanode enhancing the PCE of DSSCs. This alternative approach could facilitate the performance of TiO2 based DSSCs towards improving efficiency.