TITLE:
Fabrication and Characterization of N-Doped TiO2 Photoanode-Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
AUTHORS:
Fikria Jabli, Raha Alshammari
KEYWORDS:
Fabrication, Characterization, N-Doped TiO2, Photoanode, Dye Sensitized, Solar Cells
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.13 No.9,
September
5,
2025
ABSTRACT: Numerous studies have investigated the incorporation of transition metals such as Ag, Co, Mn, Zn, Cr, Nb, W, and Cu into TiO2 to evaluate their optoelectronic properties. Previous research indicates that the introduction of transition metal ions into the TiO2 lattice can effectively modulate various electronic characteristics, including band gap energy, Fermi level, d-electron configuration, and band positions. Moreover, studies have indicated that doping TiO2 with non-metals like N, C, B, S, and F can reduce the band gap and enhance light absorption in the visible spectrum. Besides individual research on the metallic and non-metallic doping of TiO2, studies have focused on their combined co-doping in TiO2 for solar cell applications. For example, DSSCs incorporating Cu/N and Cu/S co-doped TiO2 demonstrated notable performance improvements. In this work, we present our investigation into the structural, morphological, and optical properties of N-doped TiO2 nanomaterials. The properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were assessed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Visible spectroscopy. XRD data confirmed that both undoped and N-doped TiO2 samples exhibit analogous peaks for anatase and rutile phases, indicating that nitrogen doping did not induce any TiO2 phase transitions. SEM images of the pure and N-doped TiO2 fabricated films depict a well-dispersed microstructure and a consistent grain distribution. Moreover, the band gap (Eg) and Urbach (Eu) energies were observed to be lower for the synthesized nanoparticles. The data indicated a decrease in Eg energy with nitrogen doping.