Eosin is a well-studied dye in the context of light energy conversion by sensitizing semiconductor nanoparticles in photo-electrochemical cells[34].
A wide-gap semiconductor sensitized by semiconductor nanocrystals is a candidate material for such use.
Our study identifies that graphene nanowalls served as an excellent transfer black body can enhance the photo-electrochemical performance of electrode when it is sensitized with semiconductor nanofilms.
Among them, sensitizing the narrow bandgap semiconductor such as CdS [15 19], CdSe [13, 15, 16], Bi2S3 [20], PbS [17, 21, 22], and CdTe [23] with TiO2 to broaden the visible absorption is emerging as an effective method.
In a DSSC, dye molecules are used to sensitize wide-bandgap semiconductors, such as TiO2 and ZnO, which assist in separating electrons from photo-excited dye molecules.
To increase the light response region and enhance the efficiency, many approaches have been tried, such as modifying with metal or nonmetal ions [12 16], coupling with other narrow band gap semiconductors [17 19], or sensitizing by various dyes [20 23].
Hence, sensitizing TiO2 with small bandgap semiconductors, such as quantum dots or organic dyes, has been extensively studied to harvest more photons in the visible light region of solar spectrum for the applications to quantum dot-sensitized solar cells [2 4], dye-sensitized solar cells [5 7], and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells [8 10].
However, only one report is available on photovoltaic performance of Sb2Se3 as a sensitizer spin coated on TiO2 photoanode in semiconductor sensitized solar cell applications [6].
To the best of our knowledge, first time we are exploring the SnO2/Sb2Se3 combination in semiconductor sensitized solar cells and of the many influencing factors, the effect of sensitization time is given emphasis in the present study.
Wide-gap semiconductor sensitized by quantum dot is a candidate material for such use.
