Mercurochrome sensitized ZnO/In2O3 photoanode for dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Here we fabricated a novel mercurochrome (MC) sensitized ZnO/In2O3 photoanode based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The compact layer of ZnO was deposited on the substrate using a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. Seed layers of ZnO/In2O3 were deposited by a simple and low-cost Doctor-blade method. Deposited bilayered photoanode was studied to develop a cost-effective alternative photoanode and enhance the performance of ZnO based DSSCs. MC dye was used as photosensitizers to sensitized ZnO/In2O3 photoanode. The obtained UV-Visible absorption spectra show that visible light absorption of the ZnO/In2O3 bilayer photoanode was more effective than bare ZnO and In2O3 photoanodes. The optical band gap was found to be 3.2, 2.87 and 2.95 eV for ZnO, In2O3, and ZnO/In2O3 bilayer, respectively. A photoconversion efficiency of about 0.51% was achieved for MC sensitized ZnO/In2O3 bilayered photoanode based DSSC under 1 sun equivalent illumination. We confirm that ZnO/In2O3 bilayer photoanode based DSSCs show a better performance than single-layered ZnO and single-layered In2O3 based DSSCs.