Dye-Sensitized Nanostructured p-Type Nickel Oxide Film as a Photocathode for a Solar Cell

Abstract

Nanostructured NiO film was prepared by depositing nickel hydroxide slurry on conducting glass and sintering at 500 °C to a thickness of about 1 µm. The photocurrent-voltage (IV) characteristics of the plain nanostructured NiO electrode recorded potentiostatically in a standard three-electrode setup upon UV illumination demonstrate p-type behavior, while the IV characteristics of a dye-sensitized nanostructured NiO electrode coated with erythrosin B show cathodic photocurrent under visible light illumination. The highest incident photon-to-current conversion efficiencies of tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TPPC) and erythrosin B-coated NiO films were 0.24% and 3.44%, respectively. In sandwich solar cells with a platinized conducting glass as counter electrode exposed to light from a sun simulator (light intensity: 68 mW/cm 2 ), a short-circuit cathodic photocurrent density (I SC ) of 0.079 mA/cm 2 and an open-circuit voltage (V OC ) of 98.5 mV for TPPC-coated NiO electrode were achieved. Similarly, I SC ) 0.232 mA/cm 2 and V OC ) 82.8 mV were registered when the NiO electrode was coated with erythrosin B. The cathodic photocurrent is explained by hole injection from dye molecule to the valence band of the p-NiO electrode.

Electrochemical characterization of NiO electrodes deposited via a scalable powder microblasting technique

“…Moreover, the better uniformity of the metal oxide coverage on Ni substrate achieved with the microblast technique (Figure 4), brings about a stronger adhesion and improved charge transfer properties at the Ni/NiO x interface 62 in microblast samples when compared to the nanoparticle based films with nanoporous morphology. 23,25,41 The effect of irradiation of bare and dye modified Sample A type coatings with white light was also investigated. The results obtained show that the electrochemical behaviour of these coatings is affected by irradiation as shown by an increase of the current density exchanged by the microblast sample in passing from the dark to the illuminated state within the potential range 1.2 -3.2 V vs Li + /Li ( Figure 9).…”

“…5 Because of this interesting combination of electrical and optical properties, NiO x has been considered for energy storage applications, [6][7][8] in electrochromic devices as transparent electrode, 9-17 in optoelectronic devices as electron barrier, 18,19 for gas sensing, 20,21 and, more recently, in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as photoactive cathode. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] The utilization of NiO x in such diverse applications has been accompanied by the development of various preparation methods and deposition techniques, aimed at producing NiO x -based materials with variable chemical composition, electrical resistivity, compactness and morphology. Examples include electrochemical deposition, 36 chemical vapor 37 and bath deposition, 38 spray pyrolysis, 39,40 sol-gel method, 14,23,25,41 hydrothermal synthesis, 29,42 and sputtering.…”

“…[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] The utilization of NiO x in such diverse applications has been accompanied by the development of various preparation methods and deposition techniques, aimed at producing NiO x -based materials with variable chemical composition, electrical resistivity, compactness and morphology. Examples include electrochemical deposition, 36 chemical vapor 37 and bath deposition, 38 spray pyrolysis, 39,40 sol-gel method, 14,23,25,41 hydrothermal synthesis, 29,42 and sputtering. 32 In this contribution, we propose a novel approach for the preparation of technologically relevant NiO x coatings for photo-electrochemical purposes using a microblasting technique.…”

“…9b,12b,14b,15b Specifically the objective of this work is to evaluate the photo-electrochemical performance of microblast NiO x coatings in the bare state and in the sensitized version with the dye Erythrosin B (ERY). 23,41 …”

Spray-deposited NiO x films on ITO substrates as photoactive electrodes for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells

“…[3,4] Because of this interesting combination of electrical and optical properties, NiO x has been considered as active material for various applications like energy storage, [5,6] in electrochromic smart windows, [7][8][9][10][11] optoelectronic devices, [12] and, more importantly, in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as photoactive dye-sensitized mesoporous cathode. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The utilization of NiO x in such diverse applications has been accompanied by the development of various preparation methods and deposition techniques aimed at producing NiO x based materials with variable chemical composition, electrical resistivity, compactness and morphology for performance optimization. Most common examples include sputtering, [20] electrochemical deposition, [21] spray pyrolysis [22] or sol-gel method.…”