Photoelectron spectroscopy is an experimental method to study the electronic structure in matter. In this thesis, a combination of soft and hard X-ray based photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to obtain atomic level understanding of electronic structures and energy level alignments in mesoscopic solar cells. The thesis describes how the method can be varied between being surface and bulk sensitive and how to follow the structure linked to particular elements. The results were discussed with respect to the material function in mesoscopic solar cell configurations. The heart of a solar cell is the charge separation of photoexcited electrons and holes, and in a mesoscopic solar cell, this occurs at interfaces between different materials. Understanding the energy level alignment between the materials is important for developing the function of the device. In this work, it is shown that photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to experimentally follow the energy level alignment at interfaces such as TiO2/metal sulfide/polymer, as well as TiO2/perovskite. The electronic structures of two perovskite materials, CH3NH3PbI3 and CH3NH3PbBr3 were characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy and the results were discussed with support from quantum chemical calculations. The outermost levels consisted mainly of lead and halide orbitals and due to a relatively higher cross section for heavier elements, hard X-ray excitation was shown useful to study the position as well as the orbital character of the valence band edge. Modifications of the energy level positions can be followed by core level shifts. Such studies showed that a commonly used additive in mesoscopic solar cells, Li-TFSI, affected molecular hole conductors in the same way as a p-dopant. A more controlled doping can also be achieved by redox active dopants such as Co(+III) complexes and can be studied quantitatively with photoelectron spectroscopy methods. Hard X-rays allow studies of hidden interfaces, which were used to follow the oxidation of Ti in stacks of thin films for conducting glass. By the use of soft X-rays, the interface structure and bonding of dye molecules to mesoporous TiO2 or ZnO could be studied in detail. A combination of the two methods can be used to obtain a depth profiling of the sample.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’élaboration de cellules photovoltaïques hybrides solides sensibilisées à colorant, composées d’une couche dense de germes de ZnO recouverte de nanobâtonnets de ZnO sensibilisés par un colorant et infiltrés par du spiro-OMeTAD. La couche dense de germes de ZnO a été optimisée, afin qu’elle soit compacte, homogène et bien orientée. Les nanobâtonnets sont synthétisés par voie hydrothermale. L’influence de différents paramètres de synthèse sur la morphologie des nanobâtonnets a été testée. Deux méthodes permettant de modifier l’écart entre les nanobâtonnets ont également été mises au point. Les performances des cellules photovoltaïques varient en fonction de la longueur des nanobâtonnets, du colorant utilisé, de la durée de vieillissement des cellules à l’air, l’atmosphère, la température… Enfin, nous avons réussi à obtenir un rendement dépassant 1%, ce qui est supérieur à la meilleure performance publiée actuellement (0,25%) pour le même type de dispositif. / This thesis deals with solid state dye sensitized solar cells in which dye sensitized ZnO nanorods are associated with spiro-OMeTAD (solid hole conductor). Nanorods are grown on the top of a dense ZnO seed layer. The growth of a dense, homogeneous and well oriented layer is achieved after optimization of the deposition procedure. ZnO nanorods are obtained after submitting the dense ZnO layer to an hydrothermal treatment. The nanorods morphology evolution with reactants concentration, reaction temperature and time,… was determined. The solar cells performances depend also on the nanorods length, the type of dye, the cell ageing time in air, the atmosphere and the cell temperature…The best performance published nowadays (0.25%) for our type of photovoltaic devices is really inferior to the 1% efficiency we obtained.

Titania has been the focus of attention for several decades owing to its chemical stability, non-toxicity, inexpensiveness and robust surface chemistry. Its technological applications include use in diverse areas such as photocatalytic reactors, antibacterial coatings, dye sensitive solar cells (DSSC) and more recently the perovskite solar cells to name a few. All of these applications are based on the ability to inject or generate electronhole pairs in titania and transport them to a suitable interface at which they are ejected to either engender a reaction as in photocatalysis or drive a load as in photovoltaics. From a technological perspective it is also important that such science be achieved and controlled in supported titania structures. The research reported in this thesis, thus, started with the development of a process for obtaining adherent titania films by oxidation of sputtered Ti films on stainless steel, a very commonly used substrate. Challenges that had to be overcome included the need to oxidize titanium to obtain the right phase mixture while preventing film cracking or delamination due to compressive stresses generated during anodic oxidation of Ti. During this process of obtaining nanostructured TiO2 through anodization, it was serendipitously discovered that planar TiO2 films obtained by oxidation of sputtered Ti films did significantly better than anodized nanoporous titania in bactericidal studies. This was then replicated in organic dye degradation studies. Analysis of the material showed that this improved performance was due to the unintentional contamination during sputtering by Cu, Zn, Mo possibly due to arcing across brass contacts. This quaternary system was then systematically explored and it was shown that an optimal metastable composition in the Ti- Cu-Mo oxide ternary system performs the best. DFT studies showed that this was due to introduction of shallow and deep states in the band gap that, depending on the level of dopants, either enhances carrier lifetimes or leads to recombination. In continuation of this work on supported titania structures by oxidation of Ti, a novel photoanode for use in dye sensitized photovoltaics was developed by oxidation of Ti foam. This results in an interconnected 3-D network of TiO2 that possess at its core a network of Ti. Such architecture was designed to provide a large surface area for anchoring the sensitizer while simultaneously reducing the distance that charge carriers have to travel before reaching the ohmic contacts to prevent recombination losses. The thesis discusses the preparation of such anodes, the properties of the 3-D oxide and cells, with up to 4% efficiency, developed using such anodes. Reasons for such behaviour and avenues for further exploration to improve cell efficiency will also be discussed.

Le développement des énergies renouvelables est aujourd’hui devenu un enjeu mondial majeur comme alternative aux énergies fossiles dans la production d'énergie. Parmi elles, l’énergie solaire est considérée comme la source la plus prometteuse, permettant de couvrir l’ensemble des besoins énergétiques liés à l’activité humaine. Les cellules photovoltaïques les plus performantes aujourd’hui, entre 16 et 18 % en modules, sont composées de silicium, un semi-conducteur inorganique. Cependant, leur coût de production élevé a nécessité le développement de matériaux alternatifs moins couteux. Parmi les voies explorées, les cellules solaires organiques ont émergé comme une alternative prometteuse pour produire l’électricité à faible coût. Le sujet de cette thèse s’intègre dans ce contexte de recherche. Deux types de cellules solaires ont été étudiés : les cellules à hétérojonction en volume (BHJ) et sensibilisées au colorant (DSSCs). Le courant photogénéré repose généralement (i) dans les cellules BHJ, sur le transfert entre de charge entre un polymère donneur et un accepteur d’électrons (fullerène), tels que le couple poly(3-hexyl)thiophène (P3HT) et [6,6]-phényl-C61-butanoate de méthyle (PCBM), et (ii) dans les DSSCs, la sensibilisation de la surface d’un semi-conducteur inorganique tel que l’oxyde de titane par un colorant et la présence d’un électrolyte, jouant le rôle de médiateur redox. Bien qu’ayant atteint des rendements de photoconversion respectifs de 5 et 13 %, ces cellules nécessitent des améliorations pour une commercialisation à grande échelle. Tout d’abord, les performances des cellules BHJ à base de P3HT sont considérablement limitées par sa faible absorption, ne couvrant pas la globalité du spectre solaire. Afin de palier ce problème, nous avons combiné le P3HT avec des chromophores, i.e. des porphyrines, ayant une absorption plus étendue. Ensuite, pour assurer une meilleure extraction des charges au sein du dispositif, une couche interfaciale cathodique à base de polyélectrolytes pi-conjugués a été ajoutée. Enfin, des colorants extraits de la biomasse ont été préparés afin de remplacer les colorants coûteux à base de ruthénium. En outre, les électrolytes liquides étant volatils et corrosifs, ce qui limite considérablement la stabilité des DSSCs, des électrolytes solides à base de polymères ont été étudiés comme alternative. / Among renewable energies, the sunlight has by far the highest theoretical potential to meet the worldwide need in energy. Photovoltaic devices are thus currently the subject of intense research for low-cost conversion of sunlight into electrical power. In particular, organic photovoltaics have emerged as an interesting alternative to produce electricity due to their low manufacturing cost compared to silicon solar cells, their mechanical flexibility and the versatility of the possible chemical structures. In this dissertation, we focused our research on the development of new organic pi-conjugated materials for organic solar cells applications. Two types of solar cells have been studied during this work: bulk heterojunction and dye-sensitized solar cells. The charge transfer leading to the photocurrent is usually based on (i) a polymer donor and a fullerene acceptor in BHJ solar cells, such as the widely studied poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) materials and (ii) a metal oxide (titanium oxide) sensitized with a dye and an electrolyte in DSSCs. Despite power conversion efficiencies have reached 5 and 13 % respectively for these two types of devices, they still display several drawbacks that limit their commercialization. P3HT displays a narrow absorption of the solar spectrum thus limiting the conversion efficiency. To overcome this limitation, we combined P3HT with chromophores, i.e. porphyrins, having an extending absorption. Then, to ensure better charge transfer and extraction within the device, a cathode interfacial layer based on cationic pi-conjugated polyelectrolytes was added. Finally, dyes extracted from the biomass (chlorophyll a derivatives) were synthesized to replace the expensive ruthenium dyes in DSSCs. Since liquid electrolytes are volatile and corrosive, which considerably limit the DSSCs stability, solid polymer electrolytes were also developed as an alternative.

Photovoltaic cells are a promising solution to the current energy crisis. Among the different photovoltaic cell technologies developed, dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC) are emerging as viable low-cost alternatives to Si PV technology. This thesis presents studies on fabrication and characterisation of TiO2 based dye-sensitised solar cells. Chapter 1 gives an overview of different photovoltaic cell technologies and a review of the state-of-the art DSSC technology. Chapter 2 describes the techniques used for characterisation of DSSCs. Chapter 3 describes the fabrication of TiO2 based dye-sensitised solar cells. Chapter 4 presents the analysis of measurements obtained by the characterisation techniques. Finally chapter 5 summarises the work done and suggests directions for future work.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest on renewable energy sources as substitute to fossil fuels. Among various processes of energy generation, electrochemical methods such as storage and conversion systems, electrolysis of water (production of H2 and O2), fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors and solar cells have received great attention. The core of these energy technologies is a series of electrochemical processes, which directly depend on the nature of ‘electro catalyst’. The design and preparation of an electro catalyst is based on new concepts such as controlled surface roughness, atomic topographic profiles, defined catalytic sites, atomic rearrangements, and phase transitions during electrochemical reactions. Good electro catalysts should possess low over potential, high exchange current density, high stability, low cost and high abundance. The most fundamental reactions in the area of electrochemistry are hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen reduction (ORR) reactions. They are important in different energy systems such as fuel cells and batteries. Platinum has been a favoured electro catalyst due to its high activity, favourable density of states at Fermi level and chemical inertness. The low abundance, however, limits its large scale applications. Alternate materials with high catalytic activities are always required. In this particular direction, metal chalcogenides such as sulphides and selenides have attracted attention in recent years. The present thesis describes the synthesis of different phases of palladium and nickel chalcogenides and their applicability in various electrochemical reactions, both in aqueous and organic media. First part includes the synthesis of highly crystalline palladium selenide phases namely Pd17Se15, Pd7Se4 and Pd4Se by employing facile single source molecular precursor method. Pure palladium selenide phases are prepared by thrombolysis of highly processable intermediate complexes formed from metal and selenium precursors. Continuous films of different dimensions on various substrates (glass, ITO, FTO etc.) could be prepared (figure 1). This is one of the requirements for processing any new material. Thickness of the films could be altered by changing the volume of precursor complex coated on the substrate. All the phases are found to be metallic in nature with resistivity values in the range of 30 to 180 µΩ.cm. Figure 1. (a) Scanning electron micrograph and (b) photographic image of Pd17Se15 prepared on different substrates glass (1), Si (2), fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) (3) and DSSC solar cell fabricated using FTO coated Pd17Se15 as the counter electrode (4). Other components of DSSC are given in the experimental section. All the palladium selenides phases are shown to be catalytically active towards electrochemical reactions such as HER and ORR. It is observed that the activities of the phases depend on the stoichiometric ratio of palladium to selenium. Higher the palladium content in the phase, higher is the catalytic activity observed. Therefore, the activities of the chalcogenides can be easily tuned by varying the ratio of metal to chalcogen. Tafel slopes of 50–60 mV/decade are observed for all three phases towards HER indicating that Volmer- Heyrovsky mechanism is operative. The exchange current densities are in the range of 2.3 x 10-4 A cm-2 to 6.6 x 10-6 A cm-2 (figure 2a). Figure 2. (a) Linear sweep voltammograms of Pd17Se15, Pd7Se4 and Pd4Se in 0.5 M H2SO4 (HER) and (b) 0.1 M KOH (ORR) at a scan rate of 2 mVs-1. These phases are found to be highly robust and stable under different pH conditions. Stability of the phases is confirmed by characterizing the catalysts post-HER process, using various techniques such as XPS, XRD and SEM. High activities observed for Pd4Se is explained based on electrochemically active surface area values determined from under potential deposition studies and also based on DFT calculations. Computational studies reveal the presence of different charge distribution on palladium in all the three phases which is likely to be another reason for varied activities. Palladium selenides are also explored as catalysts towards ORR in alkaline medium. Kinetic parameters and reaction mechanism are determined using RDE studies. All the three phases are found to be active and Pd4Se shows the highest activity, following a direct 4 electron reduction pathway (figure 2b). Other two phases follow 2 electron pathway terminating at hydrogen peroxide stage. Catalytic activity of Pd17Se15 is further improved by Nano structuring of the material and by synthesizing the material on active supports such as rGO, acetylene black and today carbon. ORR plays an important role in metal-air batteries. The palladium chalcogenides are used as electrodes in metal-air batteries. Specific energy density observed in the case of Mg-air primary batteries is higher for Pd4Se than the other two phases (figure 3a). Figure 3. (a) Discharge curves of Mg-O2 battery with different phases of palladium selenides as cathodes. Constant current density of 0.5 mA cm-2 is used for discharge. (b) Characteristic J–V curves of DSSCs with Pd17Se15, Pd7Se4 and Pt as counter electrodes. Versatility of these phases is further studied towards redox reaction in non-aqueous medium (I3-/I-). This reaction plays a crucial role in the regeneration of the dye in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Palladium selenide phases prepared on FTO plates are employed as counter electrodes in DSSC. The solar light conversion efficiencies are found to be 7.45 and 6.8% for Pd17Se15 and Pd7Se4 respectively and are comparable to that of platinum (figure 3b). The reason for high activities may be attributed to high electronic conductivity and low work function of the phases. The following chapter deals with the synthesis of palladium sulphide phases (Pd4S and Pd16S7) using both hydrothermal and single source precursor methods. Electro catalytic activities of the phases are shown towards HER and ORR and Pd4S exhibits better catalytic activities than that of Pd16S7 phase. Direct electrochemistry of cytochrome c is achieved on Pd4S with ∆E of ~64 mV (figure 4a). Electrochemical oxidation of ethanol, ethylene glycol (EG) and glycerol are also studied on the Pd4S phase and the activity is found to follow the order, glycerol > ethylene glycol > ethanol (figure 4b). Figure 4. (a) Cyclic voltammograms of Pd4S in (1) 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0) and (2) in presence of 0.2 mM cytochrome c at a scan rate of 50 mVs-1 and (b) Voltammograms of Pd4S in presence of different alcohols (ethanol, EG and glycerol) in 1 M KOH solution at sweep rate of 50 mVs-1. Concentration of alcohols used is 0.1 M. The effect of dimensionality on the electro catalytic activity of nickel selenide phases forms part of the next chapter. Nickel selenide (NiSe) nanostructures possessing different morphologies of wires, spheres and hexagons are synthesized by varying the selenium precursors namely, selenourea, selenium dioxide (SeO2) and potassium selenocyanate (KSeCN), respectively using hydrothermal method. The different selenium precursors result in morphologies that are probably dictated by the by-products as well as relative rates of amorphous selenium formation and dissolution. The three different morphologies are used as catalysts for HER, ORR and glucose oxidation reactions. The wire morphology is found to be better than that of spheres and hexagons for all the reactions. Among the reactions studied, NiSe is found to be good for HER and glucose oxidation while ORR seems to terminate at the peroxide stage. In alkaline medium, nickel forms hydroxides and oxy-hydroxides and these oxyhydroxides are catalytically active towards the oxidation of glucose. Therefore, nickel selenides are employed as highly selective non-enzymatic glucose sensors and detection limit of 5 µM is observed. Electrical measurements on a single nanowire and a hexagon morphology of NiSe are carried out on devices fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) technique (figure 5). The semiconducting nature of NiSe is revealed in the I-v measurements. The band gap of the material is found to be 1.9 eV and hence the single nanowire and hexagon are shown to act as visible light photodetector. Figure 5. SEM images of (a) single NiSe nanowire and (b) single NiSe hexagon with Pt contacts fabricated by FIB technique. Figure 6. Cyclic voltammograms of NiSe nanowires in 0.5 M aqueous NaOH in the (i) absence and (ii) the presence of 0.5 mM glucose, at a scan rate of 20 mVs-1 and (b) Galvanostatic discharge performance of Ni3Se2 with different morphologies (A, B and C represent Ni3Se2 prepared from SeO2, selenourea and KSeCN respectively). The next chapter includes the synthesis of different morphologies of Ni3Se2 using three different selenium precursors (SeO2, KSeCN and selenourea) and the study of their activities towards electrochemical reactions such as HER and glucose oxidation (figure 6a). Electrical measurements demonstrated the metallic behaviour of the material. These are also shown to be efficient electrode materials in energy storage devices such as supercapacitors with high specific capacitance of 2200 F/g (figure 6b). The studies are summarized in the last chapter with scope for further work. The appendixes show preliminary studies on electrooxidation of glycerol and propanol on Pd supported on TiN, synthesis of other selenides of Ni, Cu, Ag and Ti, and electro synthesis of metal-organic frameworks. (For figures pl refer the abstract pdf file)

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Exploring new technologies that can meet the world’s energy demands in an efficient and clean manner is critically important due to the depletion of natural resources and environmental concerns. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are low-cost and clean technology options that use solar energy efficiently and are being intensively studied. How to further reduce the cost of this technology while enhancing device performance is one of the demanding issues for large scale application and commercialization of DSSCs. In this research dissertation, four main contributions are made in this regard with the motivation to reduce further cost of DSSC technology. Firstly, ~10% efficiencies were achieved after developing understanding of key concepts and procedures involved in DSSCs fabrication. These efficiencies were achieved after step-by-step modifications in the DSSC design. Secondly, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were successfully employed as an alternative to Pt in the counter electrodes of DSSCs. DSSCs fabricated with CNTs were ~86% as efficient as Pt-based cells. Non-aligned CNTs were successfully grown using four different CVD methods and finally, multi-walled vertically aligned CNTs (MW-VACNTs) were synthesized using water-assisted chemical vapor deposition (WA-CVD). Thirdly, carbon derived from pyrolysis of nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) was successfully employed in counter electrodes of DSSCs instead of Pt. DSSCs with NCC were ~58% as efficient as Pt-based DSSCs. Fourthly, novel organic metal-free dyes were designed and employed instead of commonly used Ru-based dyes. DSSCs with these novel sensitizers were ~62% as efficient as those using the conventional Ru-based dyes. Characterization techniques including current-voltage measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetery (CV), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used.

The solid-state mesoscopic solar cells (sMSCs) have been developed as a promising alternative technology to the conventional photovoltaics. However, the device performance suffers from the low hole-mobilities and the incomplete pore filling of the hole transport materials (HTMs) into the mesoporous electrodes. A variety of HTMs and different preparation methods have been studied to overcome these limitations. There are two types of sMSCs included in this doctoral thesis, namely solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (sDSCs) and organometallic halide perovskite based solar cells. Two different types of HTMs, namely the small molecule organic HTM spiro-OMeTAD and the conjugated polymer HTM P3HT, were compared in sDSCs. The photo-induced absorption spectroscopy (PIA) spectra and spectroelectrochemical data suggested that the dye-dye hole conduction occurs in the absence of HTM and appears to be of significant importance to the contribution of hole transport. The PIA measurements and transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) indicated that the oxidized dye was efficiently regenerated by a small molecule organic HTM TPAA due to its excellent pore filling. The conducting polymer P3HT was employed as a co-HTM to transfer the holes away from TPAA to prohibit the charge carrier recombination and to improve the hole transport. An alternative small molecule organic HTM, MeO-TPD, was found to outperform spiro-OMeTAD in sDSCs due to its more efficient pore filling and higher hole-mobility. Moreover, an initial light soaking treatment was observed to significantly improve the device performance due to a mechanism of Li+ ion migration towards the TiO2 surface. In order to overcome the infiltration difficulty of conducting polymer HTMs, a state-of-the-art method to perform in-situ photoelectrochemical polymerization (PEP) in an aqueous micellar solution of bis-EDOT monomer was developed as an environmental-friendly alternative pathway with scale-up potential for constructing efficient sDSCs with polymer HTMs. Three different types of HTMs, namely DEH, spiro-OMeTAD and P3HT, were used to investigate the influence of HTMs on the charge recombination in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite based sMSCs. The photovoltage decay measurements indicate that the electron lifetime (τn) of these devices decreases by one order of magnitude in the sequence τspiro-OMeTAD > τP3HT > τDEH.

This work investigates the correlation of structural and photovoltaic properties of dyes used in dye-sensitized solar cells. Experimental methods, including ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are employed to study optical and electrochemical properties of dye molecules. Computational methods, including density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory, are used to validate and predict the optical and electronic properties of dye molecules, in their isolated state and once embedded into a working electrode device environment that comprises a dye...TiO2 interface. The results chapters begin with the presentation of a series of quinodimethene dyes that are experimentally validated for their photovoltaic application, and associated computational studies reveal that an inner structural factor - a phenyl ring rotation occurring during the optical excitation process - leads to the competitive photovoltaic device performance of these dyes. Carbazole-based dyes are then systematically studied by computation, especially considering charge transfer paths and binding modes of these dyes on a titania surface. The theoretical models for the basic building block of this chemical family of dyes, known as MK-44, successfully support and explain structural discoveries from X-ray diffraction and reflectometry that impact of their function. A benzothiadiazole-based dye, RK-1, is then systematically studied by both experimental and computational methods, and the results show that the π-bridge composed of thiophene, benzothiadiazole and benzene rings leads to excellent charge separation; and the rotation of these rings during the optical excitation process may well be consistent with the fluorescence spectrum. Finally, the well-known ruthenium-based dyes are theoretically studied to determine the properties of different ligands connected to the metal core of the complex. Conformations with different NCS ligands are calculated in terms of energy and explain well the corresponding results from X-ray diffraction. Acid-base properties of carboxyl groups connected to pyridine ligands in N3 and N749 are theoretically calculated based on thermodynamics and density functional theory. Implicit and explicit models are both adopted to predict these acid dissociative constant values, which are generally in a good agreement with the reported experimental data. The thesis concludes with conclusions and a future outlook.