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Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs

Semiconductor materials have been recently employed in photovoltaic devices, particularly dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), to solve numerous global issues, especially the current energy crisis emanating from the depletion and hazardous nature of conventional energy sources, such as fossil fuels a...

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Autores principales: Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D., Muchuweni, Edigar, Nyamori, Vincent O.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8979187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35425250
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ra08888b
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author Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D.
Muchuweni, Edigar
Nyamori, Vincent O.
author_facet Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D.
Muchuweni, Edigar
Nyamori, Vincent O.
author_sort Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D.
collection PubMed
description Semiconductor materials have been recently employed in photovoltaic devices, particularly dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), to solve numerous global issues, especially the current energy crisis emanating from the depletion and hazardous nature of conventional energy sources, such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy. However, progress for the past years has been mainly limited by poor electron injection and charge carrier recombination experienced by DSSCs at the photoanode. Thus, novel semiconductor materials such as bismuth oxide (Bi(2)O(3)) have been investigated as an alternative photoanode material. In this study, Bi(2)O(3) was integrated with nitrogen- or boron-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO or B-rGO, respectively) via a hydrothermal approach at a temperature of 200 °C. Various instrumental techniques were used to investigate the morphology, phase structure, thermal stability, and surface area of the resulting nanocomposites. The incorporation of N-rGO or B-rGO into Bi(2)O(3) influenced the morphology and structure of the nanocomposite, thereby affecting the conductivity and electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite. B-rGO/Bi(2)O(3) exhibited a relatively large surface area (65.5 m(2) g(−1)), lower charge transfer resistance (108.4 Ω), higher charge carrier mobility (0.368 cm(2) V(−1) s(−1)), and higher electrical conductivity (6.31 S cm(−1)) than N-rGO/Bi(2)O(3). This led to the fabrication of B-rGO/Bi(2)O(3) photoanode-based DSSCs with superior photovoltaic performance, as revealed by their relatively high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.97%, which outperformed the devices based on N-rGO/Bi(2)O(3), rGO/Bi(2)O(3,) and Bi(2)O(3) photoanodes. Therefore, these results demonstrate the promising potential of heteroatom-doped rGO/Bi(2)O(3)-based nanocomposites as photoanode materials of choice for future DSSCs.
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spelling pubmed-89791872022-04-13 Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D. Muchuweni, Edigar Nyamori, Vincent O. RSC Adv Chemistry Semiconductor materials have been recently employed in photovoltaic devices, particularly dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), to solve numerous global issues, especially the current energy crisis emanating from the depletion and hazardous nature of conventional energy sources, such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy. However, progress for the past years has been mainly limited by poor electron injection and charge carrier recombination experienced by DSSCs at the photoanode. Thus, novel semiconductor materials such as bismuth oxide (Bi(2)O(3)) have been investigated as an alternative photoanode material. In this study, Bi(2)O(3) was integrated with nitrogen- or boron-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO or B-rGO, respectively) via a hydrothermal approach at a temperature of 200 °C. Various instrumental techniques were used to investigate the morphology, phase structure, thermal stability, and surface area of the resulting nanocomposites. The incorporation of N-rGO or B-rGO into Bi(2)O(3) influenced the morphology and structure of the nanocomposite, thereby affecting the conductivity and electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite. B-rGO/Bi(2)O(3) exhibited a relatively large surface area (65.5 m(2) g(−1)), lower charge transfer resistance (108.4 Ω), higher charge carrier mobility (0.368 cm(2) V(−1) s(−1)), and higher electrical conductivity (6.31 S cm(−1)) than N-rGO/Bi(2)O(3). This led to the fabrication of B-rGO/Bi(2)O(3) photoanode-based DSSCs with superior photovoltaic performance, as revealed by their relatively high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.97%, which outperformed the devices based on N-rGO/Bi(2)O(3), rGO/Bi(2)O(3,) and Bi(2)O(3) photoanodes. Therefore, these results demonstrate the promising potential of heteroatom-doped rGO/Bi(2)O(3)-based nanocomposites as photoanode materials of choice for future DSSCs. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8979187/ /pubmed/35425250 http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ra08888b Text en This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
spellingShingle Chemistry
Ngidi, Nonjabulo P. D.
Muchuweni, Edigar
Nyamori, Vincent O.
Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title_full Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title_fullStr Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title_full_unstemmed Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title_short Synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in DSSCs
title_sort synthesis and characterisation of heteroatom-doped reduced graphene oxide/bismuth oxide nanocomposites and their application as photoanodes in dsscs
topic Chemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8979187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35425250
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ra08888b
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