Synthesis of Cr2O3/TiO2 Nanocomposite and its Application as the Blocking Layer in Solar Cells

Fatemeh Talavari,Alireza Shakeri,Hossein Mighani

doi:10.4172/2380-2391.1000231

Fatemeh Talavari, Alireza Shakeri + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4172/2380-2391.1000231

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Abstract

In this study, Cr2O3/TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using sol-gel method. TiO2 as one of the most important semiconductor materials with a variety of applications in many fields including photocatalysis and solar cells combined with Cr2O3 as a mineral material and one of the basic oxides used as pigments to improve properties such as mechanical strength, thermal stability form the Cr2O3/TiO2 nanocomposite showing attractive applications in photocatalysis and solar cells. To this end, its application in solar cells has been investigated to testify its performance. The results were promising in the case of solar cell. Cr2O3/TiO2 nanocomposite solution formed a compact layer with low defects and grain boundaries while it was sprayed as blocking layer (TiO2) in superstrate structure CZTS solar cells (Glass/FTO/TiO2/In2S3/CZTS/carbon). Compared to individual TiO2 blocking layer, the asdeposited layer showed better quality and performance. X-Ray was used to confirm synthesized nanoparticles and their morphology was investigated by Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM).

Highlights

Semiconducting materials are of high interest for their attractive applications in fields of photocatalysis and solar cells [1]
Among previews works on modification of TiO2 blocking layer, Alexander Agrios reported an improvement in charge transfer by synthesizing a nanocomposite of ZnO/TiO2 used in dye sensitized solar cells which they showed a different application of such nanocomposites as the blocking layer [7]
Fabrication of solar cells To testify the application prepared nanocomposite, we examined the superstrate CZTS solar cell structure (Figure 1) as an inorganic thin film solar cell, one of the candidates to replace high cost CIGS solar cells

Summary

Introduction

Semiconducting materials are of high interest for their attractive applications in fields of photocatalysis and solar cells [1]. One way to improve the efficiency of such solar cells is modifying different layers including the blocking layer made of up TiO2 which acts as an electron transporter and as a barrier to prevent the cell from getting short-circuited [4,5].

Results

Conclusion