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Facile synthesis route and characterizations of zinc orthotitanate nanoparticles tested for dye-sensitized solar cell DSSC applications

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Abstract

The mixture of Titanium-Zinc oxides is synthesized using two zinc sources for two synthesis methods. For the case of zinc nitrate in ethanol solution for sol–gel and zinc oxide for solid-state reaction, titanium dioxide was used in both preparations. A new preparation route was presented led to the preparation of Zn2TiO4 nanoparticles. The results of the materials mixture were confirmed by XRD and the particle size was determined by the Williamson–Hall method. The chemical and homogeneous nanoparticle sizes were confirmed by SEM and EDS analysis. SEM image of the fabricated photovoltaic cell was presented. The spectroscopy UV–V was used for determination of optical bandgap. The gap energies were found experimentally to be 2.93 eV and 3.22 eV for mixture contents of 55% and 38% of Zn2TiO4, respectively. The J-V test leads to the efficiency of DSSC based on mixture being slightly greater than based on ZnTiO3 commercial.

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Acknowledgements

A. Draoui sincerely thanks Professor L. H. Omari, LPMMAT, Faculty of Sciences, Ain-Chock, University of Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco, for the support and fruitful discussions. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Technical Platform of Physico-Chemical Analysis-Laghouat-Algeria.

Funding

This work was supported by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and is part of “Projets de Recherche Formation-Universitaire” PRFU—PROJECT under contract B00L01UN030120220002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique Des Matériaux (LPM), Université Amar Telidji de Laghouat, BP 37G, Route de Ghardaïa, 03000, Laghouat, Algeria

    Ahmed Draoui & Ibn Khaldoun Lefkaier

  2. Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Des Matériaux (LPCM), Université Amar Telidji de Laghouat, BP 37G, Route de Ghardaïa, 03000, Laghouat, Algeria

    Zoulikha Hebboul

  3. Laboratory of Semiconductors and Functional Materials (LSFM), Université Amar Telidji de Laghouat, BP 37G, Route de Ghardaïa, 03000, Laghouat, Algeria

    Mohammed Elhabib Naidjate

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  1. Ahmed Draoui
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  2. Zoulikha Hebboul
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Correspondence to Zoulikha Hebboul.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Draoui, A., Hebboul, Z., Lefkaier, I.K. et al. Facile synthesis route and characterizations of zinc orthotitanate nanoparticles tested for dye-sensitized solar cell DSSC applications. J IRAN CHEM SOC 19, 4515–4522 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13738-022-02624-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13738-022-02624-6

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