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Neodymium doped titania as photoanode and graphene oxide–CuS composite as counter electrode material in quantum dot solar cell

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Abstract

The enhanced photoresponse of commercial TiO2 (C-TiO2) nanoparticles in quantum dot (QD) sensitized solar cells, when doped with neodymium (Nd), is explored for graphene oxide–copper sulphide (GO–CuS) composite material as counter electrode. The modification of C-TiO2 and the preparation of GO–CuS were done by solid state and sonication methods respectively. The same were characterized by spectroscopy, microscopy, and cyclic voltammetry techniques. Results clearly indicate an enhanced conversion efficiency of ∼1.6 times over the undoped C-TiO2. UV and reflectance spectroscopy reveal that the dopants/defects/oxygen vacancies create midbands causing favorable surface electron states which act as electron traps suppressing recombination and the same is later detrapped leading to an efficient electron transfer. The retention of anatase phase, increase in particle size and decrease in band gap energy to visible range together with high surface area imparted by the GO to CuS in counter electrode facilitate good light harvesting and rapid enhanced electron transfer to redox system on doping. These findings make Nd–TiO2 a good photoanode material and GO–CuS a good counter electrode in QD solar cells.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India for funding and Center for Nano Science and Engineering, IISc for providing the facility to carry out the above work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nano and Material Sciences, Jain University, Bangalore, 562112, India

    Laveena P. D’Souza, Sreeramareddygari Muralikrishna, Hunsur R. Chandan, Thippeswamy Ramakrishnappa & R. Geetha Balakrishna

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  1. Laveena P. D’Souza
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  2. Sreeramareddygari Muralikrishna
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  3. Hunsur R. Chandan
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  4. Thippeswamy Ramakrishnappa
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Correspondence to R. Geetha Balakrishna.

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D’Souza, L.P., Muralikrishna, S., Chandan, H.R. et al. Neodymium doped titania as photoanode and graphene oxide–CuS composite as counter electrode material in quantum dot solar cell. Journal of Materials Research 30, 3241–3251 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.314

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