One-step synthesis of CuO/TiO2 nanocomposite by atmospheric microplasma electrochemistry - Its application as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cell

摘要

The necessity for improving performance of solar cell has been caused the development of methods for nanomaterial synthesis with tunable properties. Herein, CuO/TiO2 nanocomposite, for the first time, is prepared by microplasma-assisted electrochemical method in aqueous solution for using dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results of TEM and EDS indicate that the Cu nanoparticles dispersed in TiO 2 lattice. Moreover, based on the current density-voltage (J-V), the power conversion efficiency, open-circuit voltage (Voc) and the short-circuit current density are 9.3%, 0.68 V and 18.8 mA cm(-2) in CuO/TiO2, and 6.5%, 0.71 V and 12.94 mA cm(-2) in pure TiO2, respectively. These results reveal that the performance improvement could be due to the deduced band-gap energy, increasing life time of charge carriers and surface coverage of the sensitizing dye over CuO/TiO2 nanocomposite. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.