title: Enhanced near-infrared to visible upconversion nanoparticles of Ho³⁺-Yb³⁺-F⁻ tri-doped TiO₂ and its application in dye-sensitized solar cells with 37% improvement in power conversion efficiency.
abstract: New near-infrared (NIR)-to-green upconversion nanoparticles of Ho(3+)-Yb(3+)-F(-) tridoped TiO2 (UC-F-TiO2) were designed and fabricated via the hydrosol-hydrothermal method. Under 980 nm NIR excitation, UC-F-TiO2 emit strong green upconversion fluorescence with three emission bands at 543, 644, and 751 nm and convert the NIR light in situ to the dye-sensitive visible light that could effectively reduce the distance between upconversion materials and sensitizers; thus, they minimize the loss of the converted light. Our results show that this UC-F-TiO2 offers excellent opportunities for the other types of solar cells applications, such as organic solar cells, c-Si solar cells, multijunction solar cells, and so on. When integrating the UC-F-TiO2 into dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), superior total energy conversion efficiency was achieved. Under AM1.5G light, open-circuit voltage reached 0.77 ± 0.01 V, short-circuit current density reached 21.00 ± 0.69 mA cm(-2), which resulted in an impressive overall energy conversion efficiency of 9.91 ± 0.30%, a 37% enhancement compared to DSSCs with pristine TiO2 photoanode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ruiqing
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Danqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Liguo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wenwu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao