A facile method to prepare SnO2 nanotubes for use in efficient SnO2–TiO2 core–shell dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A high-efficiency photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) should combine the advantageous features of fast electron transport, slow interfacial electron recombination and large specific surface area. However, these three requirements usually cannot be achieved simultaneously in the present state-of-the-art research. Here we report a simple procedure to combine the three conflicting requirements by using porous SnO(2) nanotube-TiO(2) (SnO(2) NT-TiO(2)) core-shell structured photoanodes for DSSCs. The SnO(2) nanotubes are prepared by electrospinning of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP)/tin dichloride dihydrate (SnCl(2)·2H(2)O) solution followed by direct sintering of the as-spun nanofibers. A possible evolution mechanism is proposed. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) value of the SnO(2) NT-TiO(2) core-shell structured DSSCs (∼5.11%) is above five times higher than that of SnO(2) nanotube (SnO(2) NT) DSSCs (∼0.99%). This PCE value is also higher than that of TiO(2) nanoparticles (P25) DSSCs (∼4.82%), even though the amount of dye molecules adsorbed to the SnO(2) NT-TiO(2) photoanode is less than half of that in the P25 film. This simple procedure provides a new approach to achieve the three conflicting requirements simultaneously, which has been demonstrated as a promising strategy to obtain high-efficiency DSSCs.

Enhanced performance of SnO2–C composite fibers containing NiO as lithium-ion battery anodes

“…Due to synergistic effects, some hybrid systems containing two different metal oxides exhibit better electrochemical performance than single systems [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Therefore, in this paper, the electrospinning technique was applied to fabricate SnO 2 -C fibers containing NiO (SnO 2 -NiO-C fibers) with enhanced battery performance.…”

One pot synthesis of multi-functional tin oxide nanostructures for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Order of magnitude higher l n is reported in SnO 2 nanowires and flowers than NPs [11]. Many wet-chemical methods are reported for synthesis of various morphologies of SnO 2 as WE in DSSCs; [12][13][14][15] but produced inferior efficiency (g). For instance, Wang et al [16] synthesized hollow nanospheres (HNS) and reported g < 1% in pristine SnO 2 .…”

Interfacial engineering and configuration design of bilayered photoanode consisting of macroporous tin dioxide/titanium dioxide for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Hence, hierarchical nanostructured SnO 2 is indispensable for achieving high-performanced photoanode. On the other hand, to combine the advantageous features of SnO 2 and TiO 2 , various SnO 2 /TiO 2 composite nanomaterials also have been synthesized and exhibit interesting photovoltaic performance in DSSCs application [27][28][29].…”