Conductivity improvement of CuCrO2 nanoparticles by Zn doping and their application in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

Undoped and Zn-doped CuCrO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel method as promising wide band gap p-type semiconductor materials for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We studied the influence of Zn dopant concentration on structural, electrical and optical properties of CuCrO2 nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction data indicated that the delafossite-to-spinel ferrite phase transition occurs by increasing the amount of Zn doping. The average nanoparticle size was determined about 40 nm. A minimum value of electrical resistivity of 5.7 Ω cm was obtained for doping concentration of 5%. Having optimized the Zn-doped CuCrO2 nanoparticles, solid-state DSSCs were fabricated using undoped and Zn-doped CuCrO2 (5%) as solid electrolytes. As the photoanode layer, the vertically aligned TiO2 nanorod arrays were grown on FTO glass using a hydrothermal method. Compared with undoped CuCrO2, the Zn-doped nanoparticles exhibited an improvement in photovoltaic properties. The overall efficiency enhancement of 39% was obtained for the dopant concentration of 5%. The improved power conversion efficiency is attributed to the lowered electrical resistivity and enlarged work function of Zn-doped CuCrO2 nanoparticles.