Improvement of electrical and photovoltaic properties of methyl red dye based photoelectrochemical cells in presence of single walled carbon nanotubes

doi:10.1007/s12200-015-0527-6

Front. Optoelectron.

2015, Vol. 8

Issue (3) : 289-297 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-015-0527-6

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Improvement of electrical and photovoltaic properties of methyl red dye based photoelectrochemical cells in presence of single walled carbon nanotubes

Sujata CHAKRABORTY,Nabin Baran MANIK(

)

Condensed Matter Physics Research Center, Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

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Abstract

In this work, we investigated the effect of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) on the electrical and photovoltaic properties of methyl red (MR) dye based photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). MR dye based PEC with LiClO₄ as ion salt were fabricated with and without mixing SWCNT. The cells were characterized through electrical and optical measurements. The performance of the devices changed drastically in presence of SWCNT. The transition voltage and trap energy of the cells were estimated from the steady-state dark current voltage (I-V) analysis. The transition voltage and trap energy decreased for MR dye cell in presence of SWCNT. Open circuit voltage (V_oc), short circuit current (J_sc), fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (η) increased due to the addition of SWCNT. Further measurement of the transient photocurrent showed that the growth and decay of photocurrent was quite faster in presence of SWCNT. The photocurrent decay with time was fitted for both the cells and found to follow a power law relation which indicates dispersive transport mechanism with exponential trap states distributed in between lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) levels. Possible interpretation is done on the lowering of trap energy with the photocurrent. These results suggest that SWCNT lowers the trap energy of the cells by providing efficient percolation pathways for the conduction of charges. It is expected that due to lowering of trap energy the residing time of the free carriers within the traps decreases. In other words, it may also be said that the charge recombination decreases. These factors affect the overall conduction of charges and improve the electrical and photovoltaic properties.

Keywords methyl red (MR) single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) trap energy percolation pathways

Corresponding Author(s): Nabin Baran MANIK

Just Accepted Date: 17 August 2015 Online First Date: 08 September 2015 Issue Date: 18 September 2015

Cite this article:

Sujata CHAKRABORTY,Nabin Baran MANIK. Improvement of electrical and photovoltaic properties of methyl red dye based photoelectrochemical cells in presence of single walled carbon nanotubes[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2015, 8(3): 289-297.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-015-0527-6
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2015/V8/I3/289

Fig.1 Structure of (a) methyl red (MR) dye; (b) single walled carbon nanotubes [25]

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of the photoelectrochemical cell. Indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass is used as the front electrode and a thin layer of aluminum (Al) coated on a mylar (M) sheet is used as the back electrode. Here, methyl red (MR) dye is used as a light sensitizer in the ionic blend comprising of LiClO₄, PEO, EC and PC

Fig.3 Absorption spectra of methyl red (MR) and single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR in distilled water

Fig.4 Dark I-V characteristics for (a) methyl red (MR) dye based cell and (b) single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR dye cell

Fig.5 lnI-lnV characteristics for (a) methyl red (MR) dye based cell and (b) single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR dye cell

Tab.1 Extraction of values of ‘m’ and trap energy ‘E_c’ from lnI-lnV curves

Tab.2 Different photovoltaic parameters extracted from the light I-V curves

Fig.6 Photovoltaic characteristics of (a) methyl red (MR) cell and (b) single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR cell. Different photovoltaic parameters such V_oc, J_sc, FF and η have been extracted from the curves, the values of which are shown in Table 2

Fig.7 Pulsed photocurrent measurements for (a) only (a) methyl red (MR) cell and (b) single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR cell

Fig.8 Pulsed photocurrent measurements of (a) (a) methyl red (MR) cell and (b) single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) mixed with MR for an incident radiation of 100 mW/cm²

Fig.9 Determination of decay constant from lnI-lnt curves for (a) methyl red (MR) cell without single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and (b) MR cell with SWCNT

Fig.10 (a) Charging and (b) discharging of trapped carriers during photocurrent growth and decay

Tab.3 Comparison of the different parameters extracted from the electrical and optical measurement of the MR cells with and without SWCNT

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