Enhanced Efficiency of Au-Deposited BiFeO3 Nanoparticles Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

BiFeO3 nanoparticles have been synthesized by sol-gel method. The deposition of Au on the surface of BiFeO3 has been done using photo-deposition method. X-ray diffraction confirms that the synthesized nanoparticles are possessing rhombohedral structure with R3c space group. The average particles size of the synthesized nanoparticles found to be 26 nm. Synthesized nanoparticles possess band gap 2.28 eV, in the visible region. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been fabricated using synthesized nanoparticles. The effect of Au-deposition on photovoltaic performance of DSSCs has been investigated. The different performance parameters of fabricated DSSCs viz. open-circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current-density (JSC) and fill factor (FF) found to be 0.75 V, 6.5 mA/cm2, 0.62, respectively. The high energy-conversion efficiency 2.99%, has been achieved in Au-deposited BiFeO3 based DSSCs.