Saleem Muhammad, Irshad Kashif, Ur Rehman Saif, Javed M Sufyan, Hasan Mohd Abul, Ali Hafiz Muhammad, Ali Amjad, Malik Muhammad Zeeshan, Islam Saiful
Institute of Physics, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Mar 11;11(3):702. doi: 10.3390/nano11030702.
Au-doped ZnO-samarium nitrate (Sm) nanoparticles with fixed concentrations of Sm (1 wt %) and various concentrations of Au (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 wt %) were prepared and used as photoelectrodes to enhance the photovoltaic efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The cell fabricated with 1.5 wt % of Au-doped ZnO-Sm nanoparticles film achieved an optimal efficiency of 4.35%, which is about 76% higher than that of 0.0 wt % of Au-doped ZnO-Sm-based cell (2.47%). This increase might be due to the formation of a blocking layer at the ZnO-Sm/Au interface, which inhibits the recombination of electrons. This increase may also be attributed to the addition of rare-earth ions in ZnO to enhance the non-absorbable wavelength region of light via up/down-conversion of near-infrared and ultraviolet radiations to visible emission and reduce the recombination loss of electron in the cell. The efficiency of cells may be increased by the blocking layer and up/down-conversion process and thus promote the overall performance of the cells. This work indicates that Au-doped ZnO-Sm nanoparticle films have the potential to increase the performance of DSSCs.
制备了固定浓度钐（1 wt%）和不同浓度金（0.0、0.5、1.0和1.5 wt%）的金掺杂氧化锌-硝酸钐（Sm）纳米颗粒，并将其用作光电极以提高染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）的光伏效率。用1.5 wt%的金掺杂氧化锌-Sm纳米颗粒薄膜制备的电池实现了4.35%的最佳效率，比0.0 wt%的金掺杂氧化锌-Sm基电池（2.47%）高出约76%。这种提高可能是由于在氧化锌-Sm/金界面形成了一个阻挡层，从而抑制了电子的复合。这种提高也可能归因于在氧化锌中添加稀土离子，通过将近红外和紫外辐射进行上转换/下转换为可见光发射来增强光的不可吸收波长区域，并减少电池中电子的复合损失。阻挡层和上转换/下转换过程可能会提高电池的效率，从而提升电池的整体性能。这项工作表明，金掺杂氧化锌-Sm纳米颗粒薄膜具有提高DSSC性能的潜力。
