Enhanced current density through addition of CdTe in TiO2 based photoanode for DSSCs

The combined effect of duel sensitization and heterojunction architecture has been investigated on the performance of TiO2 based dye sensitized solar cell. CdTe nanoaprticles have been introduced in TiO2 matrix to function as sensitizer as well as act as hetero-junction between D719 dye and TiO2 photoanode nano-architecture. Morphological and compositional studies have been conducted using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. Light absorption characteristics have been investigated by employing Uv-vis spectroscopy and the overall performance has been studied using solar simulator and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The overall performance has been increased with the addition of CdTe due to high electron density and reduction in recombination reactions. An increase of 33.99% in incident photo conversion efficiency (IPCE) has been recorded for the samples containing CdTe compared to bare TiO2 based DSSCs.