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Luminescent material with functionalized graphitic carbon nitride as a photovoltaic booster in DSSCs: Enhanced charge separation and transfer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2019

Yanzhou Zhang ,
Kai Pan ,
Yang Qu ,
Guofeng Wang Open the ORCID record for Guofeng Wang [Opens in a new window] ,
Qilin Dai ,
Dingsheng Wang  and
Weiping Qin
Yanzhou Zhang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Kai Pan
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Yang Qu
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Guofeng Wang*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Qilin Dai
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Dingsheng Wang*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Weiping Qin
Affiliation:
College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 120012, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Small luminescent Y2O3:Eu3+ particles were prepared by a hydrothermal method first, and then, Y2O3:Eu3+/C3N4 nanocomposites were further prepared by a chemisorption method. The luminescent Y2O3:Eu3+/C3N4 nanocomposites are not only a promising down-conversion luminescent material, but also it could be used to improve the efficiencies of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Especially, the morphology of Y2O3:Eu3+ has great influence on the performance of DSSCs. Compared with Y2O3:Eu3+ nanorods, the introduction of small Y2O3:Eu3+ particles into the cells is conducive to the improvement of cell efficiency. The efficiencies of TiO2-Y2O3:Eu3+–C3N4 composite cells were not only higher than those of pure TiO2 cells but also higher than those of TiO2-Y2O3:Eu3+ or TiO2-C3N4 composite cells, resulting in the enhancement of the average efficiency of the TiO2-Y2O3:Eu3+–C3N4 composite cell from 7.16% to 8.14%, with 14% improvement over the pure TiO2 cell. The enhancement of the efficiency can be attributed to the synergetic effect of small Y2O3:Eu3+ particles and C3N4.

Keywords

lanthanideluminescencenanostructure
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , 28 February 2019 , pp. 616 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2019 

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