We report synthesis and characterization of hybrid photoanode made up of Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles prepared by a co-precipitation process. Though TiO₂ is the most preferred anode for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC), the charge recombination between electrode and electrolyte poses a major challenge. ZnO photoelectrode is a potential alternative due to higher carrier mobility but has a slower electron injection than TiO₂. To maximize the benefits of both, a co-precipitation synthesis of TiO₂/ZnO is proposed in this work as a promising alternative. The co-precipitation process produces metal oxides TiO₂ and ZnO and eventually yields the Anatase TiO₂ and Wurtzite ZnO. The experimental investigations of the new co-precipitation process show improved control of particle size, shape, and uniform distribution of ZnO and yet preserve the economy and simplicity of synthesis. The study shows an average crystallite size of 10 nm to 22 nm for TiO₂ and 17 nm to 35 nm for ZnO. Wurtzite phase varies from 4.5% to 10.8% in a co-precipitated photoanode. The deconvolution of the typical Photoluminescence (PL) curve shows two distinct bands for ZnO and TiO₂ cantered around 390 nm and 460 nm. The study shows that the co-precipitated TiO₂/ZnO has a bandgap of less than 3.2 eV, this paves the way for reduced recombination and improved device performance. Further, we fabricated a prototype of a DSSC using photoanode of TiO₂/ZnO and a sensitizer of natural plant pigment extracted from Phyllanthus reticulatas and successfully tested the prototype DSSC.

我们报告合成和表征的混合光阳极由共沉淀过程制备的二氧化钛（TiO ₂）和氧化锌（ZnO）纳米粒子组成。尽管TiO ₂是染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）的最优选阳极，但电极和电解质之间的电荷复合带来了重大挑战。由于载流子迁移率较高，但ZnO光电极是一种潜在的替代方法，但其电子注入速度比TiO ₂慢。为了最大化两者的益处，在这项工作中提出了TiO ₂ / ZnO的共沉淀合成作为一种有前途的替代方法。共沉淀过程产生金属氧化物TiO ₂和ZnO，最终产生锐钛矿TiO ₂和纤锌矿型ZnO。对新的共沉淀过程的实验研究表明，对ZnO的粒径，形状和均匀分布的控制得到了改善，但仍保持了经济性和合成简便性。研究表明，TiO ₂的平均晶粒尺寸为10 nm至22 nm，ZnO的平均晶粒尺寸为17 nm至35 nm。共沉淀光阳极中的纤锌矿相从4.5％到10.8％不等。典型的光致发光（PL）曲线的解卷积显示ZnO和TiO ₂在390 nm和460 nm附近倾斜的两个不同的谱带。研究表明，共沉淀的TiO ₂ / ZnO的带隙小于3.2 eV，这为减少重组和改善器件性能铺平了道路。此外，我们使用TiO的光电阳极制造了DSSC的原型₂ / ZnO和从网叶楠中提取的天然植物色素的敏化剂，并成功测试了原型DSSC。