La2O3/Nd2O3 Incorporated SnO2 Nanomaterials for Solar Cell and Electrochemical Supercapacitor Applications

The balance between energy demand and energy generation has become a crucial aspect in recent days. It can be solved by identifying a suitable energy generating device and storage device. To serve this purpose, an innovative method for energy generation and storage was investigated using SnO2 nanomaterials with its pure and rare earth composited (La2O3, Nd2O3) forms. The metal oxide nanomaterials are fabricated using a two-step hydrothermal approach. These fabricated materials were characterized for their structural, morphological, elemental, optical and Raman properties. These materials were utilized as anode material for dye-sensitized solar cells and attained 12.6% electrical energy conversion efficiency. Also, these materials were used as the working electrode for supercapacitors and achieved a remarkable specific capacitance value of 537.2 F/g at a scan rate 10 mV/s and 482.5 F/g at the current density 0.5 A/g. These results confirmed that the fabricated SnO2/La2O3/Nd2O3 nanocomposites can be used as suitable alternative for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and supercapacitors.