Abstract:
As a wide band gap, chemical stability, and high electron mobility, SnO
2 is an important alternative to TiO
2 for use as a semiconductor in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) photoanodes. However, due to its high charge recombination, the energy-conversion efficiency for pure SnO
2-based DSSCs is rather limited so far. In this work, SnO
2 nanocrystals with different proportion Al doping were prepared by simple hydrothermal method. Al-doped SnO
2 photoanodes were fabricated by silk-screen printing. Comparing to pure SnO
2 DSSC, the open-circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor of 2% Al-doped SnO
2 photoanode are 0.6 V, 9.61 mA/cm
2 and 61.08%, respectively, in an AM 1.5 solar simulator. The DSSCs energy conversion efficiency of 2% Al-doped SnO
2 improves from 1.28% to 3.51%. The results show that the Al-doped SnO
2 nanocrystals for DSSCs can adjust SnO
2 conduction band and suppress charge recombination. The energy-conversion efficiency of 2% Al-doped SnO
2 DSSCs effectively is enhanced consequently.