Enhancing the Electrical and Photoelectrical Efficacy with the Synergistic SrO–ZnO Nano‐Heterosystem

Abstract

Development of the sustainable materials for consolidation of the energy sustainability needs special emphasis in the current era of the increasing energy demand. In compliance with this, present investigation reports first investigation on the amended sustainable production conjugated with the microwave process of the strontium oxide (SrO) and zinc oxid (ZnO) forming SrO–ZnO nanoscale heterostructure. The band gap of the prepared green nanomaterial was tuned reducing it from 5.8 to 3.6 eV upon the formation of the nanocomposite. With the mixed cubic and hexagonal phase, these particles have average crystallite size of 66.4 nm and irregular shape. The electro‐catalytic assays have expressed the bifunctional role of the SrO–ZnO towards generation of the oxygen and hydrogen. However, it has an excellent hydrogen production capacity with the lower overpotential of 126 mV and Tafel slopes 123.6 mV dec−1. In addition, this nanomaterial has also exhibited superior electrochemical charge storage for batter applications with the unit capacity of 541.7 mAH g−1 and Rs = 0.4 Ω, reflecting facilitated diffusion at the interface. In terms of photovoltaic applications, SrO–ZnO nanocomposite has effectively passivated the perovskite solar cells by improving efficiency from 7.2% to 15.1%. Such an improved performance is associated with the chemical synergism.