Nanostructured ternary perovskite oxides as photoconversion efficiency enhancers for DSSC

Abstract

Ternary perovskite oxides are potential candidates as stand-in electron transport materials to replace the conventional binary TiO₂ in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here, we report the synthesis of nanostructured perovskite ternary oxide BaSnO₃ (BSO) photo anode doped with lanthanum (LBSO) using a facile peroxide route and demonstrate the alternative efficient electron transport layers for DSSCs. A double surface treatment method with TiCl₄ was initially applied to the transparent conducting layer (TCL) to enhance the performance of DSSCs based on La-doped BaSnO₃. The DSSCs containing the pre-treated (TCL/LBSO3) exhibited better power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.37%. Furthermore, the DSSC device assembled with pre and post (TCL/LBSO3/TCL) surface treated film exhibited the highest PCE of 5.96%, which is 60% higher than DSSC with undoped, pre and post (TCL/BSO/TCL) surface treated film (3.71%). Hence, pre and post-treated LBSO3 can be considered a promising alternative ETL layer for DSSCs due to its superior charge collection efficiency and reduced recombination rates confirmed by impedance analysis.