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Design and fabrication of carbon dots decorated WO3 nanosheets hybrid photoanodes for sunlight-driven dye-sensitized solar cell applications

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Abstract

This work demonstrates the selection of the substrates to be used for photoanode and counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). A novel carbon dots (CDs) decorated WO3 nanosheets hybrid structure was synthesized by facile hydrothermal route, which acts as a photoanode materials: counter electrode (Pt) and iodide/triiodide (I−/I3−). Sun stimulator (AM 1.5G, 100 mW/cm2) is used as source of light to evaluate the photovoltaic characteristics. The samples using various mass ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) of CDs and WO3 were prepared under the same conditions. The monoclinic structure with sheet-like morphology of WO3 was identified by XRD, Raman and TEM measurements. The optimized CDs/WO3 (1:3) photoanode exhibits a huge surface area (102.4 m2/g) and porous size (12 nm) since the CDs are rapidly anchored on the WO3 nanosheets. Due to the high absorption ability that prevents the recombination rate of the electron–hole pair, the optimized CDs/WO3 (1:3) photoanode delivers a high photoconversion efficiency of 11.7%, which is 3.35 times better than that of bare WO3 (3.5%). The improved photoconversion efficiency of WO3 by carbon was also discussed in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Selvamm Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Namakkal, Tamilnadu, 637003, India

    S. Padmanathan

  2. PG and Research Department of Physics, Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College, Rasipuram, Tamilnadu, 637401, India

    A. Prakasam

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Padmanathan, S., Prakasam, A. Design and fabrication of carbon dots decorated WO3 nanosheets hybrid photoanodes for sunlight-driven dye-sensitized solar cell applications. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 14553–14562 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04016-z

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