Mahmoud Sawsan A, Mansour Asmaa F, Elsisi Moustafa E
Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, 11727, Cairo, Egypt.
Faculty of Science, Physics Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 3;15(1):23686. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-06209-0.
In the present work, different photoanodes, namely Zinc Oxide (ZnO), Cadmium Oxide (CdO), and Titanium Oxide (TiO) nanoparticles, were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) by the blade-coating method. Different quantum dots (QD) like Cadmium Sulphide (CdS) and Zinc Sulphide (ZnS) were deposited on the photoanode by using the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique. In this concept, different metal sulphides such as NiS, ZCoS, CoNiS, and partially reduced graphene oxide (P-rGO) were coated on the FTO substrate, which act as counter electrodes. These metal sulphides were prepared in one-step hydrothermal synthesis and Partially reduced graphene oxide (P-rGO) was synthesized from the graphite powder according to the modified Hummers and Offman method for applying as a counter electrode in quantum dot sensitized solar cells QDSSC. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of photoanodes and counter-electrodes were investigated. The J-V characteristics of quantum dot-sensitized solar cells and the other parameters were analyzed. The power conversion efficiency of different photoanodes and different counter electrodes was compared. As P-rGO is applied as a counter electrode in a hybrid quantum dot sensitized solar cells, it enhances a photovoltaic performance of the cell 6.8% improvement compared with ZCoS as a counter electrode. This is due to the good electrical properties of P-rGO. Due to the well separation between the light-generated electrons and the formed holes, the cell containing TiO QD with six layers of CdS QDs deposited on six layers of ZnS QDs as a hybrid structure and P-rGO as a counter electrode has the highest efficiency of 10.75% and the current density of 22.07 mA cm compared with other cells due to the wide band gap energy of TiO QD that absorbed a wide range of the spectrum. So, P-rGO is a good material to achieve the high-power conversion efficiency in this type of hybrid quantum dot sensitized solar cells (HQDSSC).
在本工作中，通过刮刀涂布法将不同的光阳极，即氧化锌（ZnO）、氧化镉（CdO）和二氧化钛（TiO）纳米颗粒沉积在氟掺杂氧化锡（FTO）上。通过连续离子层吸附和反应（SILAR）技术，将不同的量子点（QD）如硫化镉（CdS）和硫化锌（ZnS）沉积在光阳极上。在此概念中，不同的金属硫化物如NiS、ZCoS、CoNiS和部分还原氧化石墨烯（P-rGO）被涂覆在FTO基板上，作为对电极。这些金属硫化物通过一步水热合成制备，部分还原氧化石墨烯（P-rGO）根据改进的Hummers和Offman方法由石墨粉合成，用作量子点敏化太阳能电池（QDSSC）中的对电极。研究了光阳极和对电极的结构、电学和光学性质。分析了量子点敏化太阳能电池的J-V特性和其他参数。比较了不同光阳极和不同对电极的功率转换效率。由于P-rGO被用作混合量子点敏化太阳能电池的对电极，与ZCoS作为对电极相比，它使电池的光伏性能提高了6.8%。这归因于P-rGO良好的电学性质。由于光生电子和形成的空穴之间的良好分离，与其他电池相比，包含以六层CdS量子点沉积在六层ZnS量子点上作为混合结构且以P-rGO作为对电极的TiO量子点的电池具有最高效率10.75%和电流密度22.07 mA/cm²，这是由于TiO量子点的宽带隙能量吸收了宽范围的光谱。因此，P-rGO是在这种类型的混合量子点敏化太阳能电池（HQDSSC）中实现高功率转换效率的良好材料。
