This study investigates the utilization of nickel ferrite (NiFe 2 O 4 ) nanoparticles to evaluate various morphological shapes of NiFe 2 O 4 nanocomposite semiconductors to improve dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC) performance. A simple and cost‐effective sol–gel method was used to fabricate NiFe 2 O 4 ‐ mixed TiO 2 photoanodes for large‐scale production. Compared to the reference cell, the optimized NiFe 2 O 4 ‐based DSSC achieved superior performance in short‐circuit current density, open‐circuit voltage, fill factor, output power density, and overall efficiency (6.3% vs. 2.65%). This enhancement is attributed to the altered semiconductor morphology resulting by NiFe 2 O 4 incorporation. Characterization techniques, including X‐ray diffraction, Fourier‐transform infrared, scanning electron microscope, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, EDAX, and vibrating‐sample magnetometer, confirmed the successful synthesis of spherical NiFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles (15–22 nm) and their integration into the TiO 2 photoanode. Moreover, the study investigates how the calcination temperature affects the characteristics of NiFe 2 O 4 . Increased calcination temperature resulted in a larger lattice parameter due to incorporating larger Ni 2 + ions and a rise in saturation magnetization due to improved crystallinity. The analysis suggests that multiple factors contribute to the efficiency improvement, including enhanced dye loading due to enhanced light absorption, increased surface area, fast collection channels for light‐excited carriers, improved electron transport, reduced charge recombination, and a potential magnetic field effect from the nanoparticles. These findings demonstrate the potential of NiFe 2 O 4 ‐mixed TiO 2 photoanodes for enhancing DSSC performance.
Nasr et al. (Wed,) studied this question.