THE PERFORMANCES OF THE MERCUROCHROME-SENSITIZED COMPOSITE SEMICONDUCTOR PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS BASED ON TIO2/SNO2 AND ZNO/SNO2 COMPOSITES

Abstract Mercurochrome-sensitized composite TiO 2 /SnO 2 and ZnO/SnO 2 photoelectrochemical cells (DSC) have been fabricated from the mixture of the SnO 2 particles and the semiconductor colloid (TiO 2 , ZnO). The influence of the mixed ratio on the performances of the composite semiconductor photoelectrochemical cells was studied. Comparing the composite TiO 2 /SnO 2 and ZnO/SnO 2 cells with the corresponding TiO 2 and ZnO cells, the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of the composite cells was improved greatly. The photovoltage spectra (SPS) indicated that the dye molecule was adsorbed mainly by the TiO 2 and ZnO particles respectively in the composite cells. The energy barriers between the different semiconductors contributed to the improvement of the short-circuit photocurrent. The possible transport mechanism of the photogenerated electrons in composite cells was percolation through the SnO 2 particles.