Effect of Silicon Carbide Nanoparticles on the Characteristics of Organic Sensitizers in Solar Cells

The application of wide-gap semiconductor nanoparticles for improving optical characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is considered. Here, silicon carbide nanoparticles (nSiC) are used as wide-gap quantum dots, and chromophores (lutetium diphthalocyanine and delphinidin) play the role of sensitizers. The influence of SiC nanoparticles on the absorption spectra of chromophores in tetrahydrofuran solutions, as well as their direct influence on substrates with titanium dioxide after introduction of sensitizers, is investigated. The characteristics of designed DSSCs are measured, and the DSSC performance is estimated based on the measurement data. The DSSC power and efficiency are calculated. It is found that addition of wide-gap semiconductor nanoparticles to a sensitizer improves significantly the characteristics of solar cells and increases essentially their stability. This improvement can be explained by the exciton decay, at which an electron passes initially to a nanoparticle of wide-gap SiC and then to a titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticle. The best characteristics of the solar cell versions under consideration correspond to those obtained for delphinidin with SiC nanoparticles.