Abstract
Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is an emerging energy harvesting tool which converts direct sunlight into electrical energy. These cells have much better properties in contrast with silicon based solar cells because of their flexible nature, light weight, low cost, environment friendly nature, and involvement of a simple manufacturing process. Since, a photoanode is the backbone of DSSC, we synthesized a pure and 1% manganese (Mn) doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) films by sol-gel method which are irradiated with silver (Ag) ions at two different concentrations (2 × 1014 and 4 × 1014) ions-cm−2. X-ray diffraction revealed that Mn doping followed by Ag irradiation transformed TiO2 from pure anatase to rutile phase. Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy exposed the reduction in band gap of TiO2 film during this doping and irradiation process. Therefore, absorption is enhanced with red shift in UV-range. When these films are used as a photoanode in DSSC, 1% Mn doped TiO2 film exposed with Ag at the concentration of (2 × 1014) ions-cm−2 exhibited maximum efficiency of 2.40%.