Cu2ZnSnS4 Nanoparticle Sensitized Metal–Organic Framework Derived Mesoporous TiO2 as Photoanodes for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2016-08, Vol.8 (34), p.22201-22212
• Main Authors: Tang, Rui, Xie, Zhirun, Zhou, Shujie, Zhang, Yanan, Yuan, Zhimin, Zhang, Luyuan, Yin, Longwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b06183

We present a facile hot injection and hydrothermal method to synthesize Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles sensitized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived mesoporous TiO2. The MOFs-derived TiO2 inherits the large specific surface area and abundantly porous structures of the MOFs structure, which is of great benefit to effectively enhance the dye loading capacity, prolong the incident light traveling length by enhancing the multiple interparticle light-scattering process, and therefore improve the light absorption capacity. The sensitization of CZTS nanoparticles effectively enlarges the photoresponse range of TiO2 to the visible light region and facilitates photoinduced carrier transport. The formed heterostructure between CZTS nanoparticles and MOFs-derived TiO2 with matched band gap structure effectively suppresses the recombination rates of photogenerated electron/hole pairs and prolongs the lifespan of the carriers. Photoanodes based upon CZTS/MOFs-derived TiO2 photoanodes can achieve the maximal photocurrent of 17.27 mA cm–2 and photoelectric conversion performance of 8.10%, nearly 1.93 and 2.21 times higher than those of TiO2-based photoanode. The related mechanism and model are investigated. The strikingly improved photoelectric properties are ascribed to a synergistic action between the MOFs-derived TiO2 and the sensitization of CZTS nanoparticles.