Preparation of Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4/TiO2 composite thin film electrode and evaluation of its photoelectric properties

摘要

The composite spinel-type Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4 nanoparti-cles have been synthesized by a sol-gel method,and 0％,2％,4％ and 6wt％ Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4 doped pure TiO2 (P25) powders were made into slurries.Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4/TiO2 composite thin films were prepared on compact TiO2 film coated with ITO conductive glass by screen printing method,and as the photoanode was assembled into sensitized solar cells.The crystal structure and spectral response were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectrum.The performance of sensitized solar cells of Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4 nanoparticles has been tested by Solar Simulator.The influences of doping amount of mixed spinel on photoelectron properties of composite thin films and photoelectron conversion efficiency of assembled battery have been investigated.The results show that Ni0.4Cu0.6Al2O4 powder possesses spinel structure and have excellent visible-light response,the band gap is only 1.48eV,the efficiency and optical performance of solar cell is increased and improved.When the doping is 4％,the composite thin film photoelectric conversion efficiency η is 3.26％,while pure TiO2 film cell efficiency η is only 1.79％,the doped cell photoelectric conversion efficiency is enhanced by 45％.