DSSCs synergic effect in thin metal oxide layer-functionalized SnO2 photoanodes

•Electrochemical synthesis for reproducible SnO2 photoanodes is reported.•These photoanodes are passivated with ZnO, ZrO2, MgO and CaCO3 thin layers for increasing oxygen vacancies.•This action increases N719 dye loading amount and shifted Fermi energy level.•Power conversion efficiency has been reached to 5.25% from 1.38%.

DSSCs synergic effect, for reducing charge recombination and energizing charge transfer, in SnO2 photoanodes functionalized with thin layers of several metal oxides including ZrO2, MgO, CaCO3 and ZnO etc., for boosting overall dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) performance is investigated. The SnO2 photoanodes composed with upright-standing nanosheets were initially fabricated using a simple and cost-effective wet chemical method. Both pristine and functionalized SnO2 photoanodes were explored in DSSCs application in addition to other photoelectrochemical properties where, functionalized photoanodes exhibited remarkably improved light-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies compared to that of pristine one. To corroborate synergic effect and for probing the charge transport properties including charge transfer resistance and electron life time in thin metal oxide functionalized SnO2 photoanodes, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement was undertaken.