Hierarchical superstructures of CeO2 as a potential and novel photoanode material for DSSCs

We report the synthesis of 3D hierarchical superstructures of CeO2 (CHS) via a facile solvothermal route and investigation of its properties for potential application as photoanode in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). FESEM micrographs reveal that CHS occurs as nearly monodisperse spheres with a flower-like morphology comprising of many nanosheets for petals. The as-synthesized CHS belongs to cubic fluorite crystal structure with high crystallinity. The N2 adsorption and desorption isotherm of CHS classified it as a mesoporous material, which is an essential criterion for adsorbing larger amount of dye. UV-DRS analysis reveals that the light scattering capabilities of CHS are significantly superior to the commonly used TiO2, due to the prevalence of higher internal scattering of incident light. Encouragingly, the conductivity of these structures has been markedly improved under visible light illumination (∼7.02x10−3 S cm−1) which confirms that the material is photoconductive in nature. This would in turn enhance the charge carrier collection and efficiency during the operation of the cell. Our findings mainly underscore the suitability of CeO2 for DSSCs and it is anticipated that CHS can be used as a better alternative to the existing TiO2 based photoanode materials.We report the synthesis of 3D hierarchical superstructures of CeO2 (CHS) via a facile solvothermal route and investigation of its properties for potential application as photoanode in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). FESEM micrographs reveal that CHS occurs as nearly monodisperse spheres with a flower-like morphology comprising of many nanosheets for petals. The as-synthesized CHS belongs to cubic fluorite crystal structure with high crystallinity. The N2 adsorption and desorption isotherm of CHS classified it as a mesoporous material, which is an essential criterion for adsorbing larger amount of dye. UV-DRS analysis reveals that the light scattering capabilities of CHS are significantly superior to the commonly used TiO2, due to the prevalence of higher internal scattering of incident light. Encouragingly, the conductivity of these structures has been markedly improved under visible light illumination (∼7.02x10−3 S cm−1) which confirms that the material is photoconductive in nature. This would in tur...