Enhanced dye sensitized solar cells efficiency by utilization of an external layer of CaCe2(MoO4)4:Er3þ/Yb3þ nanoparticles

Abstract

Although the technology of solar energy heightened gradually, the application of RE-ions doped mixed metal oxides as a host for light harvesting has not been widely established. Here we show, the synthesis of Er3þ/Yb3þ-doped CaCen(MoO4)4 nanoparticles via a sol-gel method with average crystallite sizes of 24 e32 nm. The band gap energy of all the samples were calculated to be in the range of 3.2 eVe3.4 eV. All the samples were used as photon upconverter (UC) in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). A series of red and green emissions were proposed, where further reflect in light harvesting applications. The energy conversion efficiency (h) and current density (JSC) of the samples containing Yb3þ were found to be a potential for DSSC. Upon incorporation of 0.45M ratio of Yb3þ-doped sample, the h and JSC were effectively enhanced to 7.78% and 28.9 mAcm2, respectively.