Photovoltaic activity of tin doped ultrasound ZnO films in DSSCs

Abstract Semiconductors are widely used in energy conversion because of their electronic properties. One of the applications is for photovoltaic solar cells. Doping is a way of altering the properties of a material without significantly causing alterations in the structure of the materials. Among these modifiable properties is the photon-to-current density efficiency of a semiconductor. Semiconductors doped with elements like aluminum, cobalt, indium, and lithium. This work doped zinc oxide with tin in the chloride form to try to increase the generated current inside a dye sensitized cell at different dye immersion times. The time used to immerse the film can affect the stability of the cell, and, by consequence, the efficiency of photovoltaic conversion. Ruthenium based dye was evaluated in this study. The results showed better current and efficiency values for a longer period, 3.38 mA/cm2 and 0.52%; absorption peaks in the UV region and band gap around 3.0 eV, below the average 3.37 eV found for zinc oxide thin films, and crystalline size of 46.7 nm.