Zeitschrift für Umweltanalytische Chemie

Synthesis of Cr₂O₃/TiO₂ Nanocomposite and its Application as the Blocking Layer in Solar Cells

Abstract

Fatemeh Talavari, Alireza Shakeri and Hossein Mighani

In this study, Cr2O3/TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using sol-gel method. TiO2 as one of the most important semiconductor materials with a variety of applications in many fields including photocatalysis and solar cells combined with Cr2O3 as a mineral material and one of the basic oxides used as pigments to improve properties such as mechanical strength, thermal stability form the Cr2O3/TiO2 nanocomposite showing attractive applications in photocatalysis and solar cells. To this end, its application in solar cells has been investigated to testify its performance. The results were promising in the case of solar cell. Cr2O3/TiO2 nanocomposite solution formed a compact layer with low defects and grain boundaries while it was sprayed as blocking layer (TiO2) in superstrate structure CZTS solar cells (Glass/FTO/TiO2/In2S3/CZTS/carbon). Compared to individual TiO2 blocking layer, the asdeposited layer showed better quality and performance. X-Ray was used to confirm synthesized nanoparticles and their morphology was investigated by Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM).