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Rare-earth-doped TiO2 photoanode DSSCs for indoor photovoltaics: a comparative study

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Abstract

This work focuses on using rare-earth (RE) elements to titanium dioxide (TiO2) to fabricate effective photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) designed for indoor applications. Using a straightforward solid-state hand-grinding technique, different RE elements, including Nd+3, Sm+4, Er+3, and Yb+3 were used as dopants in TiO2. The impact of RE-doping on TiO2 bandgap engineering and device performance was thoroughly investigated. Enhanced photophysical properties of RE-doped TiO2 were unveiled through several characterization methods such as ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), photoluminescence (PL) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV–visible absorption. These results led to the construction of DSSCs with RE-doped TiO2 that showed better photoconversion efficiency (PCE) than pristine TiO2 under household light sources such as white LED and CFL lamps with 1000 lux and 300 lux illuminance levels, respectively. Among them, Er+3-doped TiO2 exhibited the highest PCE. The PCE values were 6.7% under A.M1.5G light, 11.6% under LED light, and 7.9% under CFL light. External quantum efficiency (EQE) spectrum responses were in favor of enhanced PCE with RE-doped TiO2. Rapid electron injection from dye molecules to the conduction band (CB) of Er-doped TiO2 was observed by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) analysis. Moreover, Er-doped TiO2-based DSSCs have reduced interfacial resistances, according to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. When the doped TiO2 photoanode was compared to other doped photoanodes, the optimal stoichiometry of Er (0.4%) showed greater PCE with enhanced current density (Jsc). The outcomes highlight the possibility of using rare-earth-doped TiO2 as a material to improve the efficiency of DSSCs that rely on indoor light.

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Funding

RSSK acknowledges the financial support of DST, India, for the following projects no's CRG/2019/003197. KVS acknowledges the financial support from CSIR-SRF (09/1001(0031)/2018-EMR-I), and VVR acknowledges the financial support from UGC-JRF.

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Author notes

  1. Vishnuvardhan Reddy Chappidi and Venkate Seshiah Katta are equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ultrafast Photophysics and Photonics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana, 502285, India

    Vishnuvardhan Reddy Chappidi, Katta Venkata Seshaiah & Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana, 502285, India

    Suresh Madduri

  3. Department of Climate Change, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana, 502285, India

    Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi

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  1. Vishnuvardhan Reddy Chappidi
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  2. Katta Venkata Seshaiah
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  3. Suresh Madduri
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  4. Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception, design, and analysis. The Material preparation, data collection, and the preparation first draft of the manuscript were done by VR Chappidi and KV Seshiah, Suresh and SSK Raavi. VR Chappidi and KC Seshiah have contributed equally.All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and have read and approved the final manuscript. The project administration was done by SSK Raavi.

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Correspondence to Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi.

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Chappidi, V.R., Seshaiah, K.V., Madduri, S. et al. Rare-earth-doped TiO2 photoanode DSSCs for indoor photovoltaics: a comparative study. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 528 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12261-9

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