Enhancing the short circuit current of a Dye-Sensitized Solar cell and photocatalytic dye degradation using Cr doped SrTiO₃ interconnected spheres

In this work, different concentration of Cr doped SrTiO₃ has been synthesized by co-precipitation technique and employed as a photoanode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) by optimizing the Cr concentration. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and UV–vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) are used to examine the crystalline structure, shape, size, composition and optical response of the synthesized samples. Current density-Voltage (J-V) spectra reveal that Cr-STO-7 cell achieved the highest short circuit current (J_SC) of 8.6 mA/cm², open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of 0.71 V and efficiency (η) of 3.71% whereas bare SrTiO₃ (STO) achieved only the J_SC of 5.7 mA/cm², V_OC of 0.54 V and η of 0.94%. The improvement is due to the lower charge transfer resistance (R_CT) and charge recombination. It also serves as an effective material for Methylene Blue (MB) dye degradation. Among the samples, Cr-STO-7 achieved the highest photocatalytic efficiency of 88% under visible light illumination.