In this paper, Cadmium Oxide: Antimony has been deposited on porous silicon substrate using laser induces plasma technique. The solar cell parameters fill factor and efficiency; have been analyzed through changing of laser energy. The results shown that the change in electron mobility resulting from the change in laser energy leads to significant improvement in fill factor and efficiency. Moreover, there is slight improvement in the efficiency of CdO: Sb/Psi solar cell as a result of changing the thickness of CdO: Sb.

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We study the impact of (MnO2–ZrO2) nanoparticles on optical properties of (PVA) polymer. Several samples were produced with different weight ratios of (MnO2–ZrO2) nanoparticles. To prepare the selected samples, the casting method is used. To record the absorption spectrum, wavelengths of 200–1100 nm are applied. We have determined the absorption coefficient, energy gap for indirect transitions (forbidden and allowed), optical constants (such as the dielectric constant with its imaginary and real parts, refractive index, and attenuation coefficient), and optical conductivity. The results indicate that there is a proportional relationship between the optical constants and the concentration of (MnO2–ZrO2) nanoparticles, which means that an increase of the concentration of (MnO2–ZrO2) nanoparticles leads to an increase of the optical constants, while the transmission decreases. Additionally, the optical energy gap decreases from 4.83 eV to 3.4 eV and from 4.65 eV to 3.28 eV with increasing the concentration of (MnO2–ZrO2) nanoparticles for allowed and forbidden indirect transitions, respectively. These results can be considered as key ones for the use of (PVA-MnO2–ZrO2) nanocomposites in various fields such as optoelectronics and photonics.

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Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) remain an interesting photovoltaic concept, although recent times have seen their envisioned broad-scale applications being replaced with more niche ones. Nevertheless, as a key component of DSCs, titanium(IV) oxide (TiO2) must be produced in a large volume, low cost, and highly reproducible manner. Degussa P25 remains a benchmark TiO2 product, addressing the first two of the above points very well. Post-treatment processes that may also be carried out on a large scale give some hope to addressing the reproducibility issue. This paper builds on our previous works wherein mixed-phase P25 (anatase + rutile + amorphous TiO2) was converted into an amorphous free form by selectively dissolving and recrystallizing the amorphous component. Here we investigated the performance of metal-free organic dye (D149)-based DSCs with three different TiO2 films: (1) as-received P25 (TiO2-P25), (2) amorphous-free P25 (TiO2-HP25), and (3) anatase nanoparticles obtained from Dyesol (TiO2-DSL). DSCs based on TiO2-HP25 showed comparable performance (5.8 ± 0.2% PCE) to DSCs based on the TiO2-DSL (5.8 ± 0.4% PCE) and substantially higher than for devices based on the as-obtained P25 nanoparticles (3.9 ± 0.4% PCE). The enhancement resulting from the post-processing of P25 derives from simultaneous increases in photo-current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (VOC), and the fill factor (FF), due to enhancing the dye-loading capability and the charge-transport efficiency (suppressing the electron recombination) as a result of the removal of amorphous barriers and associated defect states. This is in line with enhancing DSC performance based on the organometallic N719 dye we reported previously. However, the photoanode material based on abundant P25 TiO2 sensitized with high-extinction-coefficient organic D149 dye can be adopted as a cost-effective DSC as an alternative to relatively high-cost DSCs based on the commercial anatase TiO2 sensitized with organometallic N719 dye.