In situ synthesis, enhanced luminescence and application in dye sensitized solar cells of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites by reduction of Y2O3:Eu3+

Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites were successfully prepared by reducing Y2O3:Eu3+ nanocrystals. The obtained Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites not only can emit enhanced red luminescence excited at 338 nm, but also can be used to improve the efficiency of the dye sensitized solar cells, resulting an efficiency of 8.38%, which is a noticeable enhancement of 12% compared to the cell without Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites. The results of the incident photon to current, dynamic light scattering, and diffuse reflectance spectra indicated that the enhancement of the cell efficiency was mainly related to the light scattering effect of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites. As a phosphor powder, the emission at ~615 nm of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ was split into two sub-bands. Compared with Y2O3:Eu3+, the 5D0 → 7F0 and 5D0 → 7F1 emissions of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ showed a little red-shift.