Characterization of nanocrystalline SnO2 thin film fabricated by electrodeposition method for dye-sensitized solar cell application

✍ Scribed by A.Y. El-Etre; S.M. Reda

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 853 KB
• Volume: 256
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0169-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2010.04.055

✦ Synopsis

Nanocrystalline SnO 2 thin film was prepared by cathodic electrodeposition-anodic oxidation and its structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM, UV-visible absorption and nitrogen adsorption-desorption by BET method. The obtained film has a surface area of 137.9 m 2 /g with grain sized of 24 nm. Thus the prepared SnO 2 thin film can be applied as an electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell. The SnO 2 electrode was successfully sensitized by Erythrosin dye and photoelectrochemical measurements indicate that the cell present short-circuit photocurrent (J sc ) of 760 A/cm 2 , fill factor (FF = 0.4), photovoltage (V oc = 0.21 V) and overall conversion efficiency (Á) of 0.06% under direct sun light illumination. The relatively low fill factor and photovoltage are attributed to the reduction of triodiode by conduction band electrons and intrinsic properties of SnO 2 .