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Enhanced photovoltaic performance of quantum dot sensitized solar cells with Ag-doped TiO2 nanocrystalline thin films

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Abstract

Ag-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocrystalline thin films have been prepared by the sol–gel dip coating method and used as photoanode to fabricate quantum dot sensitized solar cells. The X-ray diffraction studies reveal the formation of anatase phase without any impurity phase. The surface morphology studied using scanning electron microscope shows uniform distribution of particles. The optical band gap was found to be 3.5 and 3.4 eV for CdS quantum dot sensitized TiO2 and CdS quantum dot sensitized Ag-doped TiO2 thin film respectively. The Ag-doped TiO2 based solar cell exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 1.48 % which is higher than that of TiO2 (0.9 %).

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India for the financial assistance provided to carry out this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India

    A. Ranjitha & N. Muthukumarasamy

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Global Frontier Center for Multiscale Energy Systems, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Republic of Korea

    M. Thambidurai

  3. Department of Engineering, University College of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Dhayalan Velauthapillai

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  1. A. Ranjitha
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Correspondence to A. Ranjitha.

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Ranjitha, A., Muthukumarasamy, N., Thambidurai, M. et al. Enhanced photovoltaic performance of quantum dot sensitized solar cells with Ag-doped TiO2 nanocrystalline thin films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 25, 2724–2729 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-014-1935-x

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