Co-sensitization of TiO2-MWCNTs hybrid anode for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

Umer Mehmood; Shakeel Ahmed; Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein; Khalil Harrabi

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2015.05.132

Co-sensitization of TiO₂-MWCNTs hybrid anode for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

Umer Mehmood, Shakeel Ahmed, Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein^*, Khalil Harrabi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Co-sensitization of dyes on hybrid TiO₂- MWCNTs photoanode is an effective approach to enhance the performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In this work, N719 sensitizer is co-sensitized with N3. The co-sensitized device showed enhanced V_OC and J_SC in comparison to single-dye sensitized devices. Upon optimization, the device made of the 0.1Mm N₃ + 0.4 mM N719 yielded J_SC = 12.5 mA cm^-2, V_oc = 0.73 V, FF = 0.45 and η = 4.1 %.This performance is superior to that of either of the individual DSSCs sensitized with N3 (3.69%) and N719 (3.51 %) under the same conditions of fabrication. The efficiency of DSSCs was further improved to 4.46% by the incorporation of MWCNTs in TiO_2. The hybrid TiO₂/MWCNTs photoanodes with different concentrations of CNTs (0.04. 0.08, 0.12, 0.16 wt. %) were prepared using mixing technique. The optimized molar ratio of N3/N719 was used for the sensitization of hybrid photonodes. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to compute the band gaps of TiO₂ and CNT-TiO₂ clusters.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	607-612
Number of pages	6
Journal	Electrochimica Acta
Volume	173
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2015.05.132
State	Published - 30 May 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) through the Science & Technology Unit at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work through project # 11-ENE1635-04 as part of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan. KFUPM is also acknowledged for supporting this research. The authors would like to acknowledge the Center of Research Excellence for Renewable Energy at KFUPM.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Hybrid
co-sensitization
density functional theory
multi-walled carbon nanotubes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemical Engineering (all)
Electrochemistry

Access to Document

10.1016/j.electacta.2015.05.132

Cite this

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title = "Co-sensitization of TiO2-MWCNTs hybrid anode for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells",

abstract = "Co-sensitization of dyes on hybrid TiO2- MWCNTs photoanode is an effective approach to enhance the performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In this work, N719 sensitizer is co-sensitized with N3. The co-sensitized device showed enhanced VOC and JSC in comparison to single-dye sensitized devices. Upon optimization, the device made of the 0.1Mm N3 + 0.4 mM N719 yielded JSC = 12.5 mA cm-2, Voc = 0.73 V, FF = 0.45 and η = 4.1 %.This performance is superior to that of either of the individual DSSCs sensitized with N3 (3.69%) and N719 (3.51 %) under the same conditions of fabrication. The efficiency of DSSCs was further improved to 4.46% by the incorporation of MWCNTs in TiO2. The hybrid TiO2/MWCNTs photoanodes with different concentrations of CNTs (0.04. 0.08, 0.12, 0.16 wt. %) were prepared using mixing technique. The optimized molar ratio of N3/N719 was used for the sensitization of hybrid photonodes. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to compute the band gaps of TiO2 and CNT-TiO2 clusters.",

keywords = "Hybrid, co-sensitization, density functional theory, multi-walled carbon nanotubes",

author = "Umer Mehmood and Shakeel Ahmed and Hussein, {Ibnelwaleed A.} and Khalil Harrabi",

note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) through the Science & Technology Unit at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work through project # 11-ENE1635-04 as part of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan. KFUPM is also acknowledged for supporting this research. The authors would like to acknowledge the Center of Research Excellence for Renewable Energy at KFUPM. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.",

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AU - Mehmood, Umer

AU - Ahmed, Shakeel

AU - Hussein, Ibnelwaleed A.

AU - Harrabi, Khalil

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) through the Science & Technology Unit at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work through project # 11-ENE1635-04 as part of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan. KFUPM is also acknowledged for supporting this research. The authors would like to acknowledge the Center of Research Excellence for Renewable Energy at KFUPM. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

PY - 2015/5/30

Y1 - 2015/5/30

N2 - Co-sensitization of dyes on hybrid TiO2- MWCNTs photoanode is an effective approach to enhance the performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In this work, N719 sensitizer is co-sensitized with N3. The co-sensitized device showed enhanced VOC and JSC in comparison to single-dye sensitized devices. Upon optimization, the device made of the 0.1Mm N3 + 0.4 mM N719 yielded JSC = 12.5 mA cm-2, Voc = 0.73 V, FF = 0.45 and η = 4.1 %.This performance is superior to that of either of the individual DSSCs sensitized with N3 (3.69%) and N719 (3.51 %) under the same conditions of fabrication. The efficiency of DSSCs was further improved to 4.46% by the incorporation of MWCNTs in TiO2. The hybrid TiO2/MWCNTs photoanodes with different concentrations of CNTs (0.04. 0.08, 0.12, 0.16 wt. %) were prepared using mixing technique. The optimized molar ratio of N3/N719 was used for the sensitization of hybrid photonodes. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to compute the band gaps of TiO2 and CNT-TiO2 clusters.

AB - Co-sensitization of dyes on hybrid TiO2- MWCNTs photoanode is an effective approach to enhance the performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In this work, N719 sensitizer is co-sensitized with N3. The co-sensitized device showed enhanced VOC and JSC in comparison to single-dye sensitized devices. Upon optimization, the device made of the 0.1Mm N3 + 0.4 mM N719 yielded JSC = 12.5 mA cm-2, Voc = 0.73 V, FF = 0.45 and η = 4.1 %.This performance is superior to that of either of the individual DSSCs sensitized with N3 (3.69%) and N719 (3.51 %) under the same conditions of fabrication. The efficiency of DSSCs was further improved to 4.46% by the incorporation of MWCNTs in TiO2. The hybrid TiO2/MWCNTs photoanodes with different concentrations of CNTs (0.04. 0.08, 0.12, 0.16 wt. %) were prepared using mixing technique. The optimized molar ratio of N3/N719 was used for the sensitization of hybrid photonodes. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to compute the band gaps of TiO2 and CNT-TiO2 clusters.

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