Enhanced photovoltaic performance of dye sensitized solar cell using SnO2 nanoflowers

Abstract The study highlighted enhanced performance of SnO 2 based DSSC using photoanode with nanostructured morphology. The simple organic surfactant free hydrothermal synthesis method was used for preparation of SnO 2 nanoflowers for dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application. The hydrothermal reaction time was varied to obtain different SnO 2 nanostructures. The hydrothermal reaction time showed considerable effect on optical and structural properties of the prepared samples. The results indicated that the prepared samples were pure rutile SnO 2 . The band gap of prepared samples was greater than bulk SnO 2 and varied from 3.64 to 3.81 eV with increase in hydrothermal reaction time. With increase in reaction time from 4 to 24 h, the microstructure of SnO 2 changed from agglomerated nanoparticles to nanopetals and finally to self-assembled nanoflowers. Flower-like SnO 2 nanostructures showed size around 300–700 nm, and composed of large numbers of 3 dimensional petals connected with each other forming 3D nanoflowers by self-assembly. Consequently, the DSSC with flower-like SnO 2 nanostructures exhibited good photovoltaic performance with Voc, Jsc and η about 0.43 V, 4.36 mA/cm 2 and 1.11%, respectively.