Produção e Caracterização de Células Solares Sensibilizadas Por Corante:FTO/TiO2/CeO2 e FTO/TiO2/ZrO2

Abstract

Photovoltaic solar energy has been considered an important source of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, showing great growth in the development of new materials as well as in the installation potential. Among the existing technologies, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted great attention due to their rapid development, diversification of processing methods and different materials. Thus, the aim of this work was to study the mixture of TiO2 + CeO2 and TiO2 + ZrO2 in CSSC in order to improve the efficiency of energy conversion. Pechini and precipitation methodologies were tested to obtain the particles and the synthesis conditions were established by experimental planning using the Statistica software. The materials obtained were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, atomic force microscopy, X-ray, infrared and visible ultraviolet spectroscopy. The cells composed by working electrode (TiO2 + CeO2 / N719 and TiO2 + ZrO2 / N719) were evaluated by current versus potential curve, charge extraction, photocurrent spectroscopy intensity modulated photovoltage, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIE) and photochronamperiometry. The results showed that the oxides produced with a smaller particle size present better energy conversion result. The solar cell using CeO2 reached an efficiency of 9,60%, being 20% higher than the standard TiO2 cell. On the other hand, the best cell based on mixed oxide of TiO2 + ZrO2 obtained with a resulting energy conversion efficiency 12,53 % higher than TiO2 standard solar cell.