Improvement of TiO₂/Au/FTO Conversion Efficiency in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Ready via Beetroot Plant Extract

In recent years, natural plants, especially beetroot, have been used as a natural photon dye to fabricate and enhance the efficiency of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC) due to their unique properties such as cost-effectiveness, simpler extraction process, environmental friendliness, sustainability, performance characteristics, etc. This study investigates the addition of gold nanoparticles to TiO۲, which was chemically produced by extracting beetroot leaves. Transmission electron microscopy and XRD were used to characterise the TiO۲ and TiO۲:Au nanoparticles. The results of these analyses indicate that the pure TiO۲ powder contains both the rutile and anatase phases. Rutile TiO۲ has a rod-shaped shape, and the crystallite size was ۲۰-۴۰ nm, while the crystallite size range of anatase was only spherical. TiO۲:Au nanoparticles are rod-shaped. Using UV-Vis spectroscopy, the optical properties of TiO۲ and TiO۲:Au nanoparticles were determined. The results showed that the gold nanoparticles exhibited surface plasmon resonance and contributed to the improvement of optical properties by increasing the quantum confinement of carriers within the structure, which can improve the light absorption and overall performance of photovoltaic systems. Photovoltage and photocurrent measurements were used to evaluate the performance of the TiO۲/Au/FTO-doped solar cells. Increasing the surface-to-volume ratio and replenishing the electron-hole pairs of the solar cells using gold nanoparticles resulted in a ۱۲% increase in solar-to-electrical efficiency compared to pure TiO۲.

کلیدواژه ها:

Dye-sensitized solar cells ، Photovoltaic performance ، TiO۲ ، au ، FTO glass ، Renewable Energy