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Indium-doped ZnOas efficient photosensitive material for sunlight driven hydrogen generation and DSSC applications: integrated experimental and computational approach

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Abstract

Electricity generation using simple and cheap dye-sensitized solar cells and photocatalytic water splitting to produce future fuel, hydrogen, directly under natural sunlight fascinated the researchers worldwide. Herein, synthesis of indium-doped wurtzite ZnO nanostructures with varying molar percentage of indium from 0.25 to 3.0% with concomitant characterization indicating wurtzite structure is reported. The shift of (002) reflection plane to higher 2θ degree with increase in indium-doping thus is a clear evidence of doping of indium in zinc oxide nanoparticles. Surface morphological as well as microstructural studies of In@ZnO exhibited generation of ZnO nanoparticles and nanoplates of diameter 10–30 nm. The structures have been correlated well using computational density functional (DFT) studies. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy depicted the extended absorbance of these materials in the visible region. Hence, the photocatalytic activity towards hydrogen generation from water under natural sunlight as well as efficient DSSC fabrication of these newly synthesized materials has been demonstrated. In-doped ZnO exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity towards hydrogen evolution (2465 μmol/h/g) via water splitting under natural sunlight. DSSC fabricated using 2% In-doped ZnO exhibited an efficiency of 3.46% which is higher than other reported In-doped ZnO based DSSCs.

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Acknowledgements

Authors RC and YB are grateful to the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, for providing financial support to undertake this work. SRR and NYD acknowledge the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for funding (Grant No. EP/S001395/1). This work has also used the computational facilities of the Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff (ARCCA) Division, Cardiff University, and HPC Wales. Mohd. Muddassir is grateful to Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP-2021/141), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, 411007, India

    Ratna Chauhan & Yogesh Waghadkar

  2. Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Panchawati, Pune, 411008, India

    Manish Shinde & Yogesh Sethi

  3. School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK

    Sachin R. Rondiya & Nelson Y. Dzade

  4. Department of Physics, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, 411007, India

    Suresh Gosavi

  5. Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Mohd. Muddassir

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  1. Ratna Chauhan
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  2. Manish Shinde
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  3. Yogesh Sethi
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  4. Yogesh Waghadkar
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  7. Suresh Gosavi
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  8. Mohd. Muddassir
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Correspondence to Suresh Gosavi.

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Chauhan, R., Shinde, M., Sethi, Y. et al. Indium-doped ZnOas efficient photosensitive material for sunlight driven hydrogen generation and DSSC applications: integrated experimental and computational approach. J Solid State Electrochem 25, 2279–2292 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-04999-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-04999-7

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