Influence of GO concentration on photoconversion efficiency for dye-sensitized solar cells using GO:TiO2-AD as photoanodes

Abstract

Spray pyrolysis is used to make GO:TiO2 hybrid photoanodes immersed in anthocyanin dye extracted from red cabbage using various GO concentrations for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The effects of GO and anthocyanin dye on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties are examined. X-ray diffraction showed GO:TiO2-AD hybrid photoanodes have an anatase phase. Increased GO concentration leads to a reduced crystallite size from 19.84 to 15.04 nm.  Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) are used to examine photoanodes morphology, grain size, and surface roughness. Due to the GO's 2D structure, adding it to hybrid photoanodes created a continuous TiO2 network. This incorporation reduced grain size from
60.9 to 52.8 nm, increasing surface area and roughness from 16.8 to 41.7 nm. These changes improved photoanodes' dye absorption, light harvesting, and photocurrent density (J). Hall-effect measurements at room temperature showed a significant increase in conductivity and carrier concentration of about one and three orders of magnitude, respectively. The results have indicated that the best GO concentration is 4%. The J-V characterization, short circuit current density, JSC, open circuit voltage, VOC, filling factor, F.F., and PCE of the prepared DSSC have 28.85 mA/cm 2 , 0.52 V, 53.79%, and 6.14% values, respectively. The synthesized GO:TiO2-AD photoanodes are high-quality and suitable for energy conversion devices.