The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell
This study investigates a novel photoanode architecture for bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (B-DSSCs), integrating a graphenated carbon nano-tube (g-CNT) composite with a translucent TiCl4 (T/sp) layer and TiCl4-induced compact and blocking layers. A bilayer pristine TiO2 photoanode served as th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd
2025
|
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/1/118752.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848867777750761472 |
|---|---|
| author | Lawal, Ismail Shafie, Suhaidi Pandey, Shyam S. Jafaar, Haslina Mustafa, Mohd Amrallah Abdulmalik, Ibrahim Onuwe Ismail, Ismayadi Ahmad Kamarudin, Mazliana Mohd Noor, Ikhwan Syafiq Ahmad, Fauzan Liu, Xinzhi |
| author_facet | Lawal, Ismail Shafie, Suhaidi Pandey, Shyam S. Jafaar, Haslina Mustafa, Mohd Amrallah Abdulmalik, Ibrahim Onuwe Ismail, Ismayadi Ahmad Kamarudin, Mazliana Mohd Noor, Ikhwan Syafiq Ahmad, Fauzan Liu, Xinzhi |
| author_sort | Lawal, Ismail |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This study investigates a novel photoanode architecture for bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (B-DSSCs), integrating a graphenated carbon nano-tube (g-CNT) composite with a translucent TiCl4 (T/sp) layer and TiCl4-induced compact and blocking layers. A bilayer pristine TiO2 photoanode served as the control, while the composite variants incorporated g-CNT at 0.0025–0.0500 wt% concentrations in a cascaded structure with TiO2 (T/sp). Before TiCl4 treatment, the 0.01 wt% g-CNT variant achieved a 4.8437 % power conversion efficiency (PCE), a 42.5 % increase over the control (2.7857 %). conducting TiCl4 treatment, the 0.005 wt% g-CNT composites exhibited optimal performance with a bifacial PCE of 6.4447 %, representing a 25 % enhancement over untreated variants and a 56.8 % improvement over the control. This performance improvement trend was similarly corroborated by incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) measurements. The optimized photoanode demonstrated an intermediary band gap of 3.24 eV of the three variants. FESEM imagery and EDX data confirmed g-CNT incorporation, evidenced by sp2 in-plane stretching in Raman spectra and a diffraction peak at 26.2° (002) in XRD. Electrochemical analysis revealed moderate charge collection efficiency (ηcc) in untreated samples, while the presence of g-CNT enhances charge transport. TiCl4 passivation further improved ηcc, particularly in the T/sp + TiO2/0.005 wt% g-CNT composite, achieving 44.43 % (front) and 40.63 % (back) by reducing surface trap states and recombination. These findings underscore the synergistic effect of cascade-layered TiO2, g-CNT composites, and TiCl4 treatments in enhancing light absorption and charge transport for high-performance B-DSSCs. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:41:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-118752 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:41:54Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Elsevier Ltd |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-1187522025-10-28T04:07:46Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/ The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell Lawal, Ismail Shafie, Suhaidi Pandey, Shyam S. Jafaar, Haslina Mustafa, Mohd Amrallah Abdulmalik, Ibrahim Onuwe Ismail, Ismayadi Ahmad Kamarudin, Mazliana Mohd Noor, Ikhwan Syafiq Ahmad, Fauzan Liu, Xinzhi This study investigates a novel photoanode architecture for bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (B-DSSCs), integrating a graphenated carbon nano-tube (g-CNT) composite with a translucent TiCl4 (T/sp) layer and TiCl4-induced compact and blocking layers. A bilayer pristine TiO2 photoanode served as the control, while the composite variants incorporated g-CNT at 0.0025–0.0500 wt% concentrations in a cascaded structure with TiO2 (T/sp). Before TiCl4 treatment, the 0.01 wt% g-CNT variant achieved a 4.8437 % power conversion efficiency (PCE), a 42.5 % increase over the control (2.7857 %). conducting TiCl4 treatment, the 0.005 wt% g-CNT composites exhibited optimal performance with a bifacial PCE of 6.4447 %, representing a 25 % enhancement over untreated variants and a 56.8 % improvement over the control. This performance improvement trend was similarly corroborated by incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) measurements. The optimized photoanode demonstrated an intermediary band gap of 3.24 eV of the three variants. FESEM imagery and EDX data confirmed g-CNT incorporation, evidenced by sp2 in-plane stretching in Raman spectra and a diffraction peak at 26.2° (002) in XRD. Electrochemical analysis revealed moderate charge collection efficiency (ηcc) in untreated samples, while the presence of g-CNT enhances charge transport. TiCl4 passivation further improved ηcc, particularly in the T/sp + TiO2/0.005 wt% g-CNT composite, achieving 44.43 % (front) and 40.63 % (back) by reducing surface trap states and recombination. These findings underscore the synergistic effect of cascade-layered TiO2, g-CNT composites, and TiCl4 treatments in enhancing light absorption and charge transport for high-performance B-DSSCs. Elsevier Ltd 2025 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/1/118752.pdf Lawal, Ismail and Shafie, Suhaidi and Pandey, Shyam S. and Jafaar, Haslina and Mustafa, Mohd Amrallah and Abdulmalik, Ibrahim Onuwe and Ismail, Ismayadi and Ahmad Kamarudin, Mazliana and Mohd Noor, Ikhwan Syafiq and Ahmad, Fauzan and Liu, Xinzhi (2025) The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell. Solar Energy, 294 (undefined). art. no. 113495. undefined-undefined. ISSN 0038-092X https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0038092X25002580 10.1016/j.solener.2025.113495 |
| spellingShingle | Lawal, Ismail Shafie, Suhaidi Pandey, Shyam S. Jafaar, Haslina Mustafa, Mohd Amrallah Abdulmalik, Ibrahim Onuwe Ismail, Ismayadi Ahmad Kamarudin, Mazliana Mohd Noor, Ikhwan Syafiq Ahmad, Fauzan Liu, Xinzhi The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title | The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title_full | The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title_fullStr | The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title_short | The effect of Titanium (IV) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| title_sort | effect of titanium (iv) chloride surface treatment and titanium dioxide/graphenated carbon nano-tube composite photoanode to enhance charge transport and light harvesting of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/118752/1/118752.pdf |