Contribution of interconnection in barium stannate with titania for enhancing photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract This work reveals the enhancement of the photovoltaic performance of barium stannate (BaSnO3, BSO) photoanode based DSSCs with the aid of interconnection of BSO nanoparticles through the titania (TiO2). The BSO nanoparticles were synthesized by simple sol-gel method and the different wt.% of titania were added over the BSO and then calcined at 500 °C. The addition of titania causes an increment in the band gap values of TiO2@BSO (TBSO). The synthesized materials were employed as photoanodes in DSSCs and photovoltaic performances were measured under simulated AM 1.5 G solar irradiation of 100 mW cm−2. The TBSO photoanode based DSSC exhibited 1.8 times higher power conversion efficiency, when compared to the DSSC fabricated using pristine BSO photoanode. Similarly, the electron lifetime and charge collection efficiency obtained for TBSO were higher than those of BSO photoanode based DSSC. This enhancement in the power conversion efficiency, electron lifetime and charge collection efficiency were due to the presence of the titania that interconnects the BSO nanoparticles, that enhances the charge transfer and as a consequence, minimizes the photogenerated electron-hole pairs recombination. The findings of this study suggest that the novel TBSO nanocomposite could be a promising candidate for oxide perovskite based DSSCs.