Study of the Nb2O5 Insertion in ZnO to Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have received much attention as an alternative to silicon-based solar cells, due to various advantages. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an n-type semiconductor employed as photoanode on DSSC. The decrease of charge recombination is an efficient strategy capable of improving the photovoltaic performance of the device. In this perspective, Nb2O5 was added on ZnO solar cells. The oxides were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The photovoltaic parameters were obtained through J-V plots and photocronoamperometry. The results showed that the niobium oxide obtained presented orthorhombic crystal structure and DSSC with the addition of niobium oxide showed better efficiency, of 1.42% when compared the device with only ZnO.