Effect of samarium incorporation on Ag–TiO₂ nanoparticles: Structural, UV–DRS, photoluminescence, dielectric, and solar energy conversion studies

The 0.04 mol% of Ag-doped TiO 2 and 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 mol% Sm co-doped with 0.04 mol% of Ag-TiO 2 Nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method, and the prepared NPs were characterized by XRD, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, UV-DRS, and PL analysis. The Dye sensitized solar cell devices were fabricated using synthesized NPs as photoanodes and their Power conversion efficiency was measured. The prepared NPs exhibited good crystallinity and irregular spherical-shaped particles. In the Raman spectra, all expected peaks were present for the prepared samples, with a blue shift noted for the Ag-doped samples due to lattice contraction. The UV-DRS analysis shows that the band gaps of the nanoparticles decrease with Ag doping and Sm co-doping, likely due to defect levels introduced into the TiO 2 lattice. The results suggests that silver-doped and samarium co-doped TiO₂ NPs shows the improved PCE due to better electron injection from the dye's valence band to the conduction band facilitated by the doped nanoparticles.