Synthesis of SnO $$_2$$ 2 nanoparticles by electrooxidation of tin in quaternary ammonium salt for application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A facile synthetic route has been employed to prepare tin oxide nanoparticles. The route comprises anodic dissolution of metallic tin in the presence of tetramethylammonium chloride called electrooxidation. The effect of experimental parameters was investigated with special focus on solution pH. The obtained nanostructures have been characterized by XRD, EDS, TEM, FESEM, FTIR and UV–visible studies. The results show that the solution pH has a critical influence on the nanoparticles properties. The hydrophilic feature of nanoparticles decreases with pH growth, whereas their mean size increases. On the other hand, the size distribution is much uniform for the samples prepared at low pH. Having achieved the nanoparticles by electrooxidation, the dye-sensitized solar cells based on the produced SnO $$_2$$ nanoparticles were fabricated and the influence of nanoparticles on their performance was investigated. By variation in solution pH, we prepared nanoparticles with different particle sizes and photoanodes with various dye-loading abilities. The dye absorption and consequently current density of cells increased in acidic case, and therefore, power conversion efficiency grew up by 33% in acidic synthetic environment.