Plasmon (Al) Impregnated Sno2/Tio2 and Zno/Tio2 Nanocomposites as Efficient Photoelectrodes for Dsscs – a Relative Analysis. (2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Praveen, B.; Pugazhendhi, K.; Mary, J. Sahaya Selva; Padmaja, S.; Arnold, E. Merlin; Madhavan, J.; Shyla, J. Merline
• Is Part Of: Materials today. Volume 8:Part 1(2019)
• Page Start: 239
• Page End: 244
• Publication Date: 2019
• Subjects: Plasmon impregnation -- Sol-gel -- UV-DRS -- Photoconductivity -- photoelectrodes; Materials science -- Congresses -- Periodicals; 620.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2019.02.106
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-7853

Abstract

Abstract: We report herein a relative analysis of plasmon (Al) impregnated SnO2 /TiO2 and ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposite systems synthesized using sol-gel method. The properties of the Al-SnO2 /TiO2 and Al-ZnO/TiO2 have been studied using various characterisation techniques such as XRD, EDAX, FESEM, UV-DRS, and Photoconductivity techniques. The elemental composition and phase structures of the as-synthesized Al-SnO2 /TiO2 and Al-ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposites were investigated using Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDAX) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), which showed high degree of purity and crystallinity respectively. The crystallite sizes estimated with Scherrer's formula were about 24 and 22 nm respectively. The FESEM images revealed that, both the samples were mesoporous in nature. The optical properties of both Al-SnO2 /TiO2 and Al-ZnO/TiO2 samples exhibited strong absorption and diffused reflectance which suggested the possibility of the samples being used as photoelectrodes and the band gap value was found to be 3.38 eV and 3.07 eV using Kubelka-Munk plot. The photoconductivity studies suggested that Al-SnO2 /TiO2 showed higher photo current values in reference to the Al-ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposite. Upon overall comparison, it is concluded that the Al doped SnO2 /TiO2 exhibited enhanced characteristics over that of Al-ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposite and hence could be applied as efficient photoelectrodes for DSSCs.