Nanocrystalline Sb-doped-BaSnO3 perovskite electron transport layer for dye-sensitized solar cells

•Facile peroxide-precipitate method is used to prepare Sb-doped BaSnO3 nanoparticles.•Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data confirms single-phase cubic structure.•Reduction in reflectance intensity and optical bandgap is observed with Sb-doping.•DSSC efficiency is 4.06 % with BaSn(1-x)SbxO3 (x = 0.01) electron transport layer.•Electrochemical impedance measurements corroborate with photovoltaic performance. Undoped and Sb-doped BaSn(1-x)SbxO3 (x = 0, 0.01 and 0.03) perovskite nanoparticles are synthesized using a facile peroxide-precipitate method and annealed at 900 °C for 2 h in air. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data indicates single-phase cubic structure which also corroborates with transmission electron microscopy data. Reduction in reflectance intensity and optical bandgap is observed with Sb-doping. Dye-sensitized solar cell fabricated using nanocrystalline BaSn(1-x)SbxO3 at x = 0.01 as electron transport layer shows maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.06% and short-circuit current density of 9.97 mAcm−2, substantiating the electrochemical impedance data.