Investigation on optical properties of SiO ₂ extracted from Sidoarjo mud with γ-Al ₂ O ₃ nanoparticle addition for DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cells) applications

It has been shown that the presence of Al2O3 in SiO2 extracted from Sidoarjo mud increase the efficiency as photoanode for DSSC application. In this study, we are interested in the investigation of the optical properties of SiO2 extracted from Sidoarjo mud after the addition of γ-Al2O3 nanoparticle. The utilized SiO2 and γ-Al2O3 nanoparticle are extracted from Sidoarjo mud using the co-precipitation method. The investigation consists of changing the percentage of γ-Al2O3 to SiO2 from 5%, 10%, and 20% wt. The samples are analyzed using XRD and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The XRD shows that the presence of SiO2, NaAlSi3O8, and γ -Al2O3 in Sidoarjo mud is detected at peak 2θ=22,74; 2θ=31,56; and 2θ=45,37, respectively. The UV-Vis shows that the absorption at 300-400 nm wavelength is due to SiO2. The narrowest band gap energy and the smallest energy urbach occurs at a percentage of 10%. The addition of nanoparticle γ -Al2O3 to SiO2 exhibits narrowing energy gap and energy Urbach at TiO2 photoanode justifying that the addition of γ -Al2O3 to SiO2 at TiO2 photoanode might be used in DSSC.