Dye Synthesizing Effect on Tin Doped ZnO Films for DSSC

Semiconductors are often used in the energy conversion field, due to its electronic properties. One of the applications is for photovoltaic solar cells. Doping is a way of altering the properties of a material without significantly causing alterations in the structure of the materials. One of these properties that can be changed is the photon to current efficiency of a semiconductor. Many elements are being used for the doping of semiconductors, such as aluminum, cobalt, indium and lithium. This work doped zinc oxide with tin in the chloride form to try to increase the generated current inside a dye sensitized cell at different dye immersion times. The time used to immerse the film can affect the stability of the cell, and, by consequence, the efficiency of photovoltaic conversion. Ruthenium based dye was tested in this study. The results showed better current and efficiency values for a longer period of time, 3.38 mA/cm2 and 0.52%; absorption peaks in the UV region and band gap around 3.0 eV, below the average 3.37 eV found for zinc oxide thin films, and crystalline size of 46.7 nm.