Thickness dependent optical and eosin-Y sensitized solar cells characteristics of nc-a TiO^sub 2^ films

• Published in: Solar energy 2014-08, Vol.106, p.48
• Main Authors: Sarode, MT, Khollam, YB, Jadkar, SR, Kale, BB, Mohite, KC
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Band gap; Conductivity; Indium tin oxides; Nanoparticles; Photovoltaic cells; Porosity
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257

Herein, we report the thickness dependent optical and eosin-Y dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) characteristics of nanocrystalline anatase (nc-a) TiO2 films deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by using sol-gel dip-coating method with ... (TTIP) (0.05 and 0.10 M) as Ti-precursor. The as-deposited films were heated at 400 ...C/2 h in air. The XRD and Raman spectroscopy characterization studies revealed the formation of pure single anatase TiO2 phase in resultant films. The HRTEM studies reflected uniform size distribution of spherical TiO2 nanoparticles (average size ~20 nm) with crystalline grains of diameters = 15-20 nm in a structured matrix. This is consistent with XRD results of crystallite size = 10-25 nm. A profound effect of variation of film thickness on optical and eosin-Y sensitized photovoltaic characteristics of nc-a TiO2 films is observed. With increasing the film thickness, the % optical transmission (T), absorption coefficient (...), refractive index (n) and optical conductivity (...) are found to be decreasing whereas, porosity ratio (% P) and photoconversion efficiency (...) are found to be increasing. The optical indirect band gap is found to be between 3.20 and 3.21 eV. The better photovoltaic performance: open-circuit voltage of 0.554 V, short circuit current of 1.291 mA, fill factor of 41.57% and conversion efficiency (...) of 1.10% is obtained for eosin-Y DSSC using redox polyiodide (1 M KOH + 1 M KI + 0.5 M iodine) electrolyte in actonitrile. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)