Electrolytic synthesis of CuO/SnO2 Nanocomposites for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Applications

Abstract

In this study, CuO/SnO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by an easy, low cost and short time electrolytic method for fabrication dye-sensitized solar cells ( DSSCs). The characterization of the prepared CuO/SnO2 NCs were studied by several techniques. The FE-SEM images of CuO/SnO2- PVA and CuO/SnO2-PVP NCs were both rectangle and regular cube shapes respectively. HRTEM images of synthesized CuO/SnO2 NCs show homogeneous cubic shapes had an average size of 30-40 nm. The XRD results show the monoclinic-tenorite phase of CuO crystal structure and the SnO2 crystal structure is in rutile tetragonal SnO2. The optical properties of the prepared CuO/SnO2- PVA and CuO/SnO2-PVP NCs were studied through UV / VIS spectroscopy. The optical bandgap was found to be 3.15 eV and 3.18 eV respectively. Dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using CuO/SnO2- PVA and CuO/SnO2-PVP NCs as anode electrodes (front electrode) and graphite as cathode (back electrode) in the presence of two kinds of natural dyes, these are pomegranate and parsley dyes, and iodine / iodate electrolyte solution. The photovoltaic parameters were determined from I-V plots of the DSSCs indicated that the DSSCs prepared from parsley dye were more efficient. The reason may be attributed to the fact that parsley chlorophyll dye contains an abundance of electrons capable to providing the DSSCs with these electrons better than the anthocyanin dye found in pomegranate