Abstract
Bismuth oxide nanoplates prepared by chemical bath deposition show high performance when used as photoanode in DSSC. The power conversion efficiency has been improved when coated with ZnO passivation layer.
•Bi2O3 NPLs photoanodes are prepared by a simple one-step chemical bath deposition.•When used in DSSCs as photoanode, Bi2O3 NPLs shows high power conversion efficiency (1%).•ZnO surface passivation layer further improves the efficiency by 50%.•ZnO coating layer suppresses the charge recombination and improves the transport properties.
For the first time, bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) nanoplates synthesized by single-step chemical method were envisaged as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. The structural elucidation demonstrated tetragonal structure with a predominant β-Bi2O3. The power conversion efficiency (1%) of Bi2O3 nanoplates-based dye-sensitized solar cells was enhanced up to 50% when decorated with zinc oxide thin layer (ZnO). The best performing electrode showed 24% incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency. This high DSSC performance of Bi2O3–ZnO photoanode is attributed to the increased electron transportation due to the suppression of recombination centers by ZnO passivation layer.