Abstract
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•N@SnO2/TiO2 NFs were introduced by combination between two different methods; electrospinning and hydrothermal treatment.•The synthesized nanofibers reveal distinct performance as photoanode in DSC.•The solar efficiency is affected by N-doping and increased from 3.41% for SnO2/TiO2 to 5.01% for N@SnO2/TiO2 NFs.•High dye loading was observed based on N@SnO2/TiO2 nanofibers; 2.139×10−7 mol·cm−2.•SnO2 content should be optimized; 10% is the best.
Although, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is the most widely used photoanode material in the dye-sensitized solar cells, the low tendency for dye adsorption, fast electrons/holes recombination and the poor electrons transfer are considered important reasons for the corresponding low photovoltaic efficiency. To overcome these problems, combining the versatility of the hydrothermal and electrospinning processes was exploited to synthesize novel nitrogen doped & tin oxide (SnO2) co-incorporated good morphology TiO2 nanofibers to be used as photoanode material. Experimentally, compared to pristine, nitrogen-doped and nitrogen-free&SnO2-incorporated TiO2 nanofibers, the novel electrode shows higher dye adsorption capacity and strong improvement in the charges recombination at the photoanode/electrolyte interface. Investigation of the photovoltaic efficiency indicated that SnO2 content should be optimized; the best result was obtained at 10wt%. Moreover, nitrogen doping enhances the cell efficiency based on both pristine and SnO2-incorporated TiO2 nanofibers. Typically, the estimated photovoltaic efficiencies for the fabricated cells based on pristine, nitrogen-doped, SnO2-incorportaed, and nitrogen-doped&SnO2-incorportaed TiO2 nanofibers were 1.61%, 4.41%, 3.41% and 5.01%, respectively. The enhancement of the photovoltaic efficiency for the introduced nanofibers can be attributed to two reasons. Firstly, compared to the other formulations, the introduced electrode shows the maximum short circuit photocurrent (Jsc); 8.74mA/cm2, which can be attributed to the enhancement of the dye adsorption, improving in the charge transfer, and decreasing of the electrons/holes recombination. Secondly, SnO2 incorporation leads to creates new routes for transferring the electrons from LUMO state of photosensitizer to the external circuit through the conduction band of this hetero structure and also wider the band gap which retards the recombination reactions.