Facile fabrication of hollow mesosphere of crystalline SnO2 nanoparticles and synthesis of SnO2@SWCNTs@Reduced Graphene Oxide nanocomposite as efficient Pt-Free counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is the new type of solar cells which is use to convert solar energy to electrical energy, now a days it is more popular due to easy fabrication and less production cost as compared to those of the conventional Silicon solar cells. In 1991, Physicist Gratzel and his coworkers invented the ruthenium sensitizer adsorbed on nanoporous TiO2 semiconductor film based solar cells [1]. However, the charge separation capability of TiO2 based DSSCs is concealed by its low electron mobility (<1cm2V−1s−1)> resulting in higher dark current [2]. Furthermore, TiO2 shows a high photocatalytic effect and as a result sensitizer which is attached onto the nonporous TiO2 network, level to degrade rapidly. Consequently, in order to overcome these problems regarding TiO2-based DSSCs, other high band gap semiconductors such as ZnO, SnO2, SnS2 and CdS were investigated as possible substitute semiconductor materials. Among these semiconductor materials, SnO2 shows relatively high electron mobility (∼250 cm2V−1s−1), high transport properties and high electron–hole separation ability [3,4]. Other than its attractive properties, SnO2 nanoparticles can be synthesized using various techniques such as the solvothermal method, hydrothermal method and sol-gel. Here we mainly plan to fabricate DSSCs based on the as-prepared SnO2 nanoparticles using hydrothermal method. During last decades, extensive research has led to the maturity of adaptable methods for altering carbon (CNTs) and to obtain derivatives with more attractive features [[5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]]. To this end, CNTs decorated with metals nanoparticles (NPs), which reveal outstanding chemical activity due to their crystallographic surface structure and large active surface area, have been examined for potential applications in nanoelectronics and heterogeneous catalysis and chemical and bio chemical sensors [[13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]]. Because nanoparticles are particularly different from their bulk materials with respect to their optical, electronic and catalytic properties originating from their small dimensions [20], one can vary and or enhance their intrinsic properties by controlling the shape and size as well as the distribution of metal nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes [21]. 1′D structure SWCNTs provides the new system in scientific research and gives the way to nano scale devices [22]. With surface modification we can changed the physical properties of SWCNTs with preferred organic, inorganic and biological species [[23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]]. SWCNTs have been coated with different metal particles such as Pb, Al, Fe, Ti, Au, Ni, Pd and Pt for the functionalization of SWCNTs [23,26,31,32]. SnO2 having a wide energy band gap (Eg = 3.6 eV at 300 K), n-type semiconductor which plays an important role in the applications of transparent coatings, chemical sensors, conductive electrodes and heterojunction solar cells [[33], [34], [35], [36]].
Section snippets
Materials and methods
SWCNTs were purchased from Shanghai Mackin Biochemical Co., Ltd, according to the manufacturer's specification, SWCNTs with approximate diameter 20–25 nm, length: 20 μm. Supplementary chemicals were a critical grade and used without any purification as purchased.
Synthesis of tin dioxide (SnO2)
Tin dioxide (SnO2) nanoparticles were fabricated by a facile one-step hydrothermal technique. Briefly, 2 mmol (0.7012 g) of SnCl4·5H2O was dispersed in a mixture of ethanol (25 mL) and distilled water (5 mL) to form a translucent
Materials characterization
In this study, the performance and check the film morphology of the solar cell devices, the subsequent characteristic methods were performed. Crystallographic characterization of the SnO2 nanoparticles and SnO2 based films were ready by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD; Rigaku/Max-3A, Japan) with the Cu Kα radiation with λ = 1.54056 Å. X-ray polycrystalline diffractometer was conducted using a Smart Lab 9 kW to study the chemical states. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM; JSM-6701 F, JEOL),
Compositional and morphology of SnO2 based nanohybrids
XRD examined crystal structure of the as prepared SnO2, SWCNTs, SnO2@SWCNTs, SnO2@SWCNTs@RGO nanohybrids and the analogous XRD patterns are shown in Fig. 1. In these results all the diffraction peaks can be clearly indexed to rutile tetragonal SnO2 phase which are in accordance with the standard PDF card (JCPDS: 71–0652) with average lattice constant of a = 4.738 Å, b = 4.738 Å and c = 3.187 Å. In the synthesized product no peaks of other phases were detected, reveling high purity of
Conclusions
In the present research, we have fabricated new carbon based counter electrodes for DSSCs and exhibited the synergistic effect after the addition of SnO2 nano particles and SWCNTs in these electrodes. Different types of counter electrodes for DSSCs: SnO2, SWCNTs, RGO, SnO2@SWCNTs and SnO2@SWCNTs@RGO were successfully fabricated and results has been calculated on the basis of EIS, Tafel polarization curves, CV and J-V analysis which indicates the larger catalytic performance for reduction I3−
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0403500-03), National Natural Science Foundation of China (11674001), Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (1708085MA07, 1708085QE116), Science Foundation of Anhui Education (No. KJ2013A030), Doctoral research start-up funds projects of Anhui University (J01003206), Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure (SKL201607SIC).
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