Porous Tin Oxide Nanosheets with Enhanced Conversion Efficiency as Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Electrode

In this study, porous SnO₂ nanosheets composed of SnO₂ nanoparticles were prepared by calcining SnS₂ nanosheets. The SnO₂ nanoparticles have an average diameter of 15–20 nm and porous SnO₂ nanosheets have a large specific surface area of 37.39 m²/g. As photoanodes, the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) based on porous SnO₂ nanosheets show a superior power conversion efficiency of 0.562%, improved by 134.2% compared to pure SnO₂ nanoplate (0.240%). The efficiency improvement could be attributed to the unique porous architecture, which provides efficient electron channels and excellent ability of light scattering.