Rose Bengal sensitized bilayered photoanode of nano-crystalline TiO2–CeO2 for dye-sensitized solar cell application

Abstract

The present work deals with the study of TiO2–CeO2 bilayered photoanode with low-cost Rose Bengal (RB) dye as sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cell application. The recombination reactions are reduced in bilayered TiO2–CeO2 photoanode as compared to the single-layered CeO2 photoanode. Once the electrons get transferred from lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level of RB dye to the conduction band (CB) of TiO2, then the possibilities of recombination of electrons with oxidized dye molecules or oxidized redox couple are reduced. This is because the CB position of CeO2 is higher than that of TiO2, which blocks the path of electrons. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis shows negative shift in frequency for bilayered TiO2–CeO2 photoanode as compared to CeO2 photoanode. Hence, in bilayered photoanode lifetime of electrons is more than in single-layered photoanode, confirming reduction in recombination reactions. The X-ray diffraction patterns confirm both anatase TiO2 and CeO2 with crystalline size using Scherrer formula as 24 and 10 nm, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy images of photoanode show the porous structure useful for dye adsorption. The presence of Ti and Ce is confirmed by electron diffraction studies. The band gap values for TiO2 and CeO2 were calculated as 3.20 and 3.11 eV, respectively, using diffused reflectance spectroscopy. The bilayered TiO2–CeO2 photoanode showed open-circuit voltage (VOC) ~500 mV and short-circuit photocurrent density (JSC) ~0.29 mA/cm2 with fill factor (FF) ~62.17 %. There is increase in VOC and JSC values by 66.67 and 38.10 %, respectively, compared to RB-sensitized CeO2 photoanode.