Hybrid TiO2/ZnO and TiO2/Al plasmon impregnated ZnO nanocomposite photoanodes for DSSCs: synthesis and characterisation

The proposed work reports the synthesis and characterisation of novel and hybrid nanocomposites TiO2/ZnO and TiO2/Al plasmon impregnated ZnO, prepared using sol-gel method. X-Ray Diffraction analysis confirmed the crystalline nature of the nanocomposites with high degree of purity and the crystallite size was found to be 22 nm (TiO2/ZnO) and 21 nm (TiO2/Al-ZnO) using Scherrer's formula. The surface chemistry, elemental compositions and purity were investigated and established using Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis. The specific surface area of TiO2/ZnO was observed to be 23 m(2) g(-1) whereas on comparison, a slight decrease was observed in the case of TiO2/Al-ZnO to 19 m(2) g(-1) from Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis and in addition, both the samples were identified to be mesoporous in nature. The vibrational assignments were observed using Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy and results confirmed the existence of TiO2, ZnO and Al groups. The electrical response of the nanocomposites to the incident radiation with applied electric field was examined using Field Dependent Dark and Photo conductivity studies. The observed measurements revealed that the photocurrent values are greater than the dark currents which confirmed the photoconductive nature of the nanocomposites. While both the prepared nanocomposites qualify as good candidates for usage as efficient photoanodes for DSSCs, TiO2/Al-ZnO indicates a slight edge over the other.