Photovoltaic properties of dye sensitized solar cells using Cu-doped TiO2

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Sara Chahid, Desiree M. de los Santos, Rodrigo Alcantara, Javier Navas, Teresa Aguilar, Juan Jesus Gallardo and Concha Fernandez-Lorenzo

University of Cádiz, Spain

: J Nanomater Mol Nanotechnol

Abstract

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Photovoltaic is a promising alternative renewable energy that utilizes sunlight energy to obtain electricity which has pronounced to solve the future energy problem faces worldwide.1, 2 Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is one of leading technology in the photovoltaic field,3 due to their environmental friendliness and cost-effective alternative to silicon solar cells.4 In the present work, DSSC based on Cu-doped TiO2 semiconductor were performed. A study about the effect of Cu on structural and optical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized and their influence on photovoltaic properties was carried out. Methodology: Cu-doped TiO2 samples were synthesized using a low temperature hydrolysis reaction to produced pure, 1.0% and 5.5% Cu-doped TiO2 and annealed at 500oC.5 Doctor blade method was used to build DSSCs based on Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles. The Cu-doped TiO2 semiconductor was characterized with several tools such as XRD, ICP- AES, Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopy in order to study its physical and electronic properties. Finally, an analysis of the I-V characterization was carried out to investigate the effect of Cu-doped on DSSCs performed. Findings: Anatase TiO2 was the predominant phase in samples under study. Electronic as well as optical properties of the pure and Cu-doped TiO2 also were analyzed. A decrease in band gap energy for Cu-doped TiO2 was detected. Moreover, the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells was carried out and an improvement of open circuit voltage (VOC) and the efficiency () of the cells based on Cu-doped TiO2 compared with undoped TiO2 were observed. Conclusion & significance: The obtained results may be useful to understand the influence of structural, optical and electronic properties of TiO2 doped with Cu on their improved photovoltaic activity. Acknowledgements: We thank to the Junta de Andalucía of Spain under projects P09-FQM-04938 and ENE2014-58085-R, and FEDER funds. We gratefully acknowledge the Science and Technology Center of University of Cádiz for the supplied equipment.

Biography

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Sara Chahid is a PhD student and has expertise in synthesis and characterization of doped TiO2 nanoparticles and study of these nanomaterials in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications.

Email: sa.chahid@alum.uca.es