Tin(IV) oxide nanoparticulate films for aqueous dye-sensitized solar cells

Synthesis of TiO2/ZnO photoanodes on FTO conductive glass for photovoltaic applications

“…11). The efficiency was close to the ones found by Pham et al [42], where a conversion of 0.7% was reached for SnO 2 @ TiO 2 shells applied to DSSCs with an aqueous electrolyte. Ako et al [43] created TiO 2 /ZnO core-shell nanostructures photoanodes with a η value of 0.53%.…”

Exploring zinc oxide morphologies for aqueous solar cells by a photoelectrochemical, computational, and multivariate approach

“…40,41 This would represent an evident product sustainability and safety advantage given the integration of DSSCs with portable devices; also, water would lead to better solvent properties towards more redox couples and additives, as well as greater durability due to reduced electrolyte evaporation. 42,43 This prompted researchers to develop materials for the so-called aqueous DSSCs, proposing new formulations of liquid and gel-polymer electrolytes, [44][45][46][47] aqueous stable dyes, [48][49][50] photoanode treatment protocols, [51][52][53] platinum-free counter electrodes 54,55 to further reduce the cost and impact of this technology. In these first years of research activity, maximum photovoltaic performances of the order of 6-7% have been achieved 56,57 and further experimental and computational investigations are currently underway to try to reduce the efficiency gap with respect to the corresponding DSSCs manufactured with nitrilesbased organic solvents.…”

Photoelectric Performance Optimization of Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells Based on ZnO‐TiO2 Composite Nanofibers

“…In order to optimize the utility of TiO 2 in the photoanode, researchers have made various attempts to improve TiO 2 -based photoanodes: combining broadband gap semiconductor oxides (such as ZnO, SnO 2 [6,7], and Nb 2 O 5 ), metal elements (such as Cu [8], Ag [9], Zn, and Co [10,11]), nonmetallic elements (such as N and C), rare earth elements (such as La [12] and Ce [13]), carbon materials (such as carbon dots, graphene, activated carbon, and carbon nanotubes), and multidoping (such as Cu/S [14], Al/N [15], and Cu/graphene [16]). Among many substances, ZnO has similar band gap energy and band position as TiO 2 , has a variety of synthesizability, much higher electron mobility [17,18], and lower light deactivation rate [19] than TiO 2 .…”