Investigating the effects of TiO2 nanoparticles on the barrier inhomogeneity of brilliant-blue fruit dye-base solar cell

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on the barrier inhomogeneity of a brilliant-blue dye-based solar cell. The cell has been prepared by spin-coating technique. The barrier inhomogeneity was characterized by measuring the cell's current-voltage-temperature (I-V-T) characteristics. The results show that the incorporation of TiO2 nanoparticles leads to a significant reduction in the barrier inhomogeneity of the cell, which results from the improvement of charge injection at the junction. This improvement can be attributed to the role of TiO2 nanoparticles in reducing surface defects and improving the charge injection at the interface. Also, we have investigated the change in the Richardson constant. The homogeneous Richardson constant was found to be 81.63 × 10−7 Am−2K−2 for the dye and the value was modified to 22.85 × 10−7 Am−2K−2 by incorporation of nanoparticles. This illustrates that by the doping of nanoparticles modifies barrier inhomogeneity, resulting in enhanced conductivity.