Controllable Synthesis of NiSe2 Nanostructures via Hydrothermal Process for Photocatalytic and Solar Cell Applications

This paper reports on the synthesis of rice-like NiSe2 nanoparticles via a simple hydrothermal method by employing [bis(2-hydoxyacetophenato)nickle(II)], [Ni(HAP)2], as a novel nickel precursor. Effect of nickel source on morphology and size of nanostructures was also investigated. Moreover, the as-synthesized NiSe2 nanostructures were utilized as the photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and as the counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells. The results showed that structures size and morphology have salient effect on solar cells and using rice-like NiSe2 nanoparticles leads to an increase in DSSCs efficiency compared to agglomerated sphere-like particles from 6.04 to 8.99 % (~49 % improvement).