Highly improved solar cell efficiency of Mn-doped amine groups-functionalized magnetic Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanomaterial

Herein, magnetic Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanomaterial functionalized with amine groups (Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA) doped with manganese (Mn) was prepared, characterized and used for solar cell application. Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn was prepared via the co-precipitation and sol-gel techniques. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed to examine the structure of Fe₃O₄, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA and Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn. General morphology and textural properties of the prepared magnetic nanomaterials were clarified by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to have a knowledge about the energy band gap and thermal behavior of the prepared magnetic nanomaterials. The energy band gap of Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA with spinel structure was determined as approximately 2.48 eV. It was understood that Fe₃O₄, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA showed type IV-H3 hysteresis cycle according to IUPAC. From the BET data, it was determined that the specific surface areas of Fe₃O₄, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA were 60.85, 28.99 and 40.41 m²/g, respectively. The pore size distributions of Fe₃O₄, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA were calculated as 8.55, 1.53 and 1.70 nm, respectively, by the BJH method. Also, it was observed that the dominant pore widths of Fe₃O₄, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA were calculated ∼5.58, ∼0.88 and ∼17.92 nm, respectively, by the DFT method. Au/CuO/Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn/ZnO/SnO₂: F solar cell device was created using existing Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn as a buffer layer. The power conversion efficiency (%) of Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn based solar cell device was calculated as 2.054. This finding suggest that Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@IPA-Mn can be used as a promising sensitizer in solar cell technology. Moreover, in this study, the effectiveness of the modification of manganese (one of the transition metals, which is cheap and easily available) with magnetic nanomaterials in the use of solar cell technology was demonstrated for the first time.