ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Improved photovoltaic and high performance lithium-ion batteries based SnS/rGO hybrid nanocomposites electrodes synthesized from facile hydrothermal route

M. Indhumathy, A. Prakasam, S. Rathinavel, P. Sangeetha, and P. Kanagambal

PG and Research Department of Physics, Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College, Rasipuram, India

E-mail: aprakasam1970@gmail.com

Received: 13 February 2023  Accepted: 22 August 2023

Abstract:

The SnS/rGO composite was demonstrated with sphere-like structure assembled by SnS/rGO sheets. Each SnS/rGO sheet was characterized with the negative electricity of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) causing monodisperse SnS nanoparticles to be anchored uniformly on its surface. XRD results indicated a pure hexagonal phase of SnS NPs and all SnS/rGO NCPs with space group P 6/m. SEM and TEM images reveal that SnS nanoparticles have diameter of round 30–40 nm, which is uniformly anchored on the surface of rGO sheets (average diameter of around 2–2.5 μm). UV results demonstrate that the incorporated RGO could significantly narrow the band gap energy (2.33 to 1.81 eV) and efficiently improve the charge transfer efficiency of the sample. The rGO incorporated SnS (SRG-15) sample showed high surface area of 108.21 m²/g, which is higher than that of pure SnS (84.27 m²/g). The prepared SnS/rGO samples were used as photoanode, which are appliedin in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.7% is obtained, which is higher than 5.4% in the case of bare SnS, indicating a faster reaction rate of charge transfer and excellent catalysis of iodide ion for SnS/rGO. It shows that SnS/rGO is a promising composite material in the field of DSSCs. The nanocomposite has a specific capacity of 780 mAhg⁻¹ after 600 cycles at 100 mAg⁻¹. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results show that adding rGO to the electrode can lower the transfer resistance, and that the increased lithium storage capabilities are owing to the synergistic action of SnS and rGO.

Keywords: SnS; Reduced graphene oxide; Electrochemical; DSSCs; Photo conversion efficiency

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-03094-7

Chemical Papers 78 (1) 357–367 (2024)