Abstract
A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been fabricated with a photoanode made with silver-decorated reduced graphene oxide over the layer of TiO2 nanoparticle coated over the FTO substrate using the Doctor Blade method. Due to the excellent electrical conductivity of silver decorated reduced graphene oxide and high adsorption of dye molecules, the cell parameters are enhanced. Three different concentrations of Ag decorated rGO (0.1% wt, 0.2% wt, and 0.3% wt) have been considered for this study and are compared with pure TiO2-based DSSC. It is confirmed that the 0.1% wt concentration of TiO2-Ag decorated rGO has shown better performance than the other concentrations as well as the pure TiO2 photoanode. Natural dyes having chlorophyll pigment have been used as sensitizers, and graphene-based counter electrodes are incorporated in all solar cells. DSSC of 0.1% wt concentration of TiO2-Ag decorated rGO has given short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of 3.768 mA/cm2, 0.6518 V, 0.566, and 1.39%, respectively. The higher the concentration of Ag decorated rGO with TiO2, the lower the electron injection into the semiconductor oxide with increased band gap energy.
Graphical abstract
In this experiment, we found that 0.1% wt concentration of TiO2-Ag decorated rGO has given a short power conversion efficiency of 1.39%, respectively.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Sankaranarayanan S, Kathiravan I, Balasundaram J, Mohd Shkir and Alfaify S 2022 An analysis of the dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated with the dyes extracted from the leaves and flowers of Amaranthus cruentus Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2022 1
Kathiravan I, Sankaranarayanan S, Balasundaram J and Subramaniam B 2022 Experimentation of dyes extracted from the peels of red banana and aloe vera as sensitizers for TiO2 - based dye - sensitized solar cells Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 29 83897
Inbarajan K, Sowmya S and Janarthanan B 2022 Direct and soxhlet extraction of dyes from the peels of Allium cepa and its effective application in dye – Sensitized solar cells as sensitizer Opt. Mater. (Amst). 129 112487
Mohan K, Bora A, Roy R S, Nath B C and Dolui S K 2019 Polyaniline nanotube/reduced graphene oxide aerogel as efficient counter electrode for quasi solid state dye sensitized solar cell Sol. Energy 186 360
Salleh S A, Rahman M Y A and Aziz T H T 2022 Dye-sensitized solar cell using nickel sulfide-reduced graphene oxide counter electrode: Effect of sulphur content Inorg. Chem. Commun. 135 109086
Selvi M S G, Vijayaraghavan G V, Janarthanan B and Inbarajan K 2023 Augmentation of electron transfer by Ag incapacitated graphene oxide/dye (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) in photoanode of dye sensitized solar cell Opt. Quant. Electron. 55 784
Cruz R, Pacheco Tanaka D A and Mendes A 2012 Reduced graphene oxide films as transparent counter-electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells Sol. Energy 86 716
Zhou L et al. 2014 Controlled synthesis of CuInS2/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells J. Power Sources 272 639
Nagavolu C et al. 2016 Pt-free spray coated reduced graphene oxide counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells Sol. Energy 137 143
Belekoukia M et al. 2016 Co–N doped reduced graphene oxide used as efficient electrocatalyst for dye-sensitized solar cells Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 157 591
Sarker S, Lee K-S, Seo H W, Jin Y-K and Kim D M 2017 Reduced graphene oxide for Pt-free counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells Sol. Energy 158 42
Dong J, Wu J, Jia J, Fan L and Lin J 2017 Nickel selenide/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite as counter electrode for high efficient dye-sensitized solar cells J. Colloid Interface Sci. 498 217
Prabakaran K, Jandas P J, Mohanty S and Nayak S K 2018 Synthesis, characterization of reduced graphene oxide nanosheets and its reinforcement effect on polymer electrolyte for dye sensitized solar cell applications Sol. Energy 170 442
Patil J V et al. 2019 Influence of reduced graphene oxide-TiO2 composite nanofibers in organic indoline DN350 based dye sensitized solar cells Synth. Met. 256 116146
Merazga A et al. 2020 Optical band-gap of reduced graphene oxide/TiO2 composite and performance of associated dye-sensitized solar cells Mater. Sci. Eng. B 259 114581
Chindeka F et al. 2020 Fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells based on push-pull asymmetrical substituted zinc and copper phthalocyanines and reduced graphene oxide nanosheets J. Photochem. Photobiol. A Chem. 399 112612
Pusty M, Sinha L and Shirage P M 2019 A flexible self-poled piezoelectric nanogenerator based on a rGO–Ag/PVDF nanocomposite New J. Chem. 43 284
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Selvi, M.S.G., Vijayaraghavan, G.V., Janarthanan, B. et al. Incorporation of Ag decorated rGO ON TiO2/dye photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cell applications. J Chem Sci 136, 10 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-023-02248-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-023-02248-0