Light harvesting, self-assembled SnO nanoflakes for dye sensitized solar cell applications

In this study, SnO2 nanoflakes were prepared by a sol-gel deposition process. The SnO2 nanoflakes were around 15 μm in length and 200 nm in width with a thickness of around 50 nm. The SnO2 nanoflakes were bound with SnO2 nanoparticles with an average diameter of 10 nm. As photoanodes, the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) based on the SnO2 nanoflakes show an improved power conversion efficiency of 0.62%, improved by 4 folds compared to pure SnO2 thin film (0.14%). The efficiency improvement is due to the vertically-aligned, crystalline sheet-like structure, which provides superior enhanced light scattering and electron transport.