La 2 O 3 /Nd 2 O 3 Incorporated SnO 2 Nanomaterials for Solar Cell and Electrochemical Supercapacitor Applications

The balance between energy demand and energy generation has become a crucial aspect in recent days. It can be solved by identifying a suitable energy generating device and storage device. To serve this purpose, an innovative method for energy generation and storage was investigated using SnO 2 nanomaterials with its pure and rare earth composited (La 2 O 3 , Nd 2 O 3 ) forms. The metal oxide nanomaterials are fabricated using a two-step hydrothermal approach. These fabricated materials were characterized for their structural, morphological, elemental, optical and Raman properties. These materials were utilized as anode material for dye-sensitized solar cells and attained 12.6% electrical energy conversion efficiency. Also, these materials were used as the working electrode for supercapacitors and achieved a remarkable specific capacitance value of 537.2 F/g at a scan rate 10 mV/s and 482.5 F/g at the current density 0.5 A/g. These results confirmed that the fabricated SnO 2 /La 2 O 3 /Nd 2 O 3 nanocomposites can be used as suitable alternative for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and supercapacitors.