Enhanced dye sensitized solar cells efficiency by utilization of an external layer of CaCe2(MoO4)4:Er3+/Yb3+ nanoparticles

Although the technology of solar energy heightened gradually, the application of RE-ions doped mixed metal oxides as a host for light harvesting has not been widely established. Here we show, the synthesis of Er3+/Yb3+-doped CaCen(MoO4)(4) nanoparticles via a sol-gel method with average crystallite sizes of 24-32 nm. The band gap energy of all the samples were calculated to be in the range of 3.2 eV-3.4 eV. All the samples were used as photon upconverter (UC) in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). A series of red and green emissions were proposed, where further reflect in light harvesting applications. The energy conversion efficiency (eta) and current density (J(SC)) of the samples containing Yb3+ were found to be a potential for DSSC. Upon incorporation of 0.45 M ratio of Yb3+-doped sample, the eta and J(SC) were effectively enhanced to 7.78% and 28.9 mAcm(-2), respectively. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.