Novel KFeO2 nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell

Environmentally clean and green source of energy is solar energy that can meet the increasing demand for energy. Recent trends in solar energy reflect that delafossite materials getting more attention because of its low-cost production and easy method of synthesis, non-toxic nature, environment-friendly nature, degradability compared to the silicon. In this direction, delafossite KFeO2 nanoparticles have synthesized by chemical method and used as photo-anode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The structural, morphological, optical and photovoltaic properties of KFeO2 nanoparticles have been investigated. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study reveals that the KFeO2 nanoparticles exhibit spherical morphology with particle size 12 nm. Rietveld refinement of x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of KFeO2 reflects, its orthorhombic phase with Pbca space group. The optical study reveals that the bandgap of the KFeO2 nanoparticles lying in the visible range of spectrum, i.e., 1.88 eV. The DSSC has been fabricated using KFeO2 nanoparticles. The power conversion efficiency parameters is 0.84 V; 4.72 mA cm(-2); 64% and 2.54% respectively, for open-circuit voltage (V-OC), short circuit current-density (J(SC)), fill factor (FF) and Power conversion efficiency for fabricated DSSC. It has been found that the efficiency of fabricated DSSC has been decrease to 2.27% after 45 days.