Synthesis and characterization of BiFeO3 nanowires and their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are low cost, environment friendly and green source of energy to meet the future energy requirements. It is the first report on DSSC fabricated by utilizing BiFeO3 nanowires. In the fabrication of DSSCs, the utilization of BiFeO3 nanowires of average diameter, 20 nm, synthesized by the colloidal dispersion capillary force-induced template-assisted technique, have been reported. The structural, morphological, optical and photo-electrochemical properties of synthesized nanowires have been investigated. X-ray diffraction study and Fourier transform infrared spectrum reveal that synthesized nanowires possess rhombohedral structure. Optical absorption study confirms the absorption edge of the synthesized nanowires at 450 nm, in visible region, with energy band gap similar to 2.5 eV. The high energy-conversion efficiency of 3.02% ha's been achieved in the fabricated DSSC. The high value of incident photon to current conversion efficiency and dye loading capacity of the synthesized nanowires have been observed. A positive shift in flat-band potential (V-fb) has been observed revealing their high electron-injection efficiency. The possible mechanism of the observed solar cell performance of DSSC has been proposed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.