Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO nanoparticle and nanorod array hybrid photoanodes (original) (raw)
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ZnO nanoparticles and nanowire array hybrid photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells
Applied Physics Letters, 2010
ZnO nanoparticle-nanowire ͑NP-NW͒ array hybrid photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cell ͑DSC͒ with NW arrays to serve as a direct pathway for fast electron transport and NPs dispersed between NWs to offer a high specific surface area for sufficient dye adsorption has been fabricated and investigated to improve the power conversion efficiency ͑PCE͒. The overall PCE of the ZnO hybrid photoanode DSC with the N3-sensitized has reached ϳ4.2%, much higher than both ϳ1.58% of ZnO NW DSC and ϳ1.31% of ZnO NP DSC, prepared and tested under otherwise identical conditions.
Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2011
ZnO film with a novel bilayer structure, which consists of ZnO nanowire (ZnO NW) arrays as underlayer and polydisperse ZnO nanocrystallite aggregates (ZnO NCAs) as overlayer, is fabricated and studied as dye-sensitized solar-cell (DSSC) photoanode. Results indicate that such a configuration of the ZnO nanocrystallite aggregates on the ZnO nanowire arrays (ZnO-(NCAs/NWs)) can significantly improve the efficiency of the DSSC due to its fast electron transport, relatively high surface area and enhanced lightscattering capability. The short-circuit current density (J sc) and the energy-conversion efficiency (Á) of the DSSC based on the ZnO-(NCAs/NWs) photoanode are estimated and the values are 9.19 mA cm −2 and 3.02%, respectively, which are much better than those of the cells formed only by the ZnO NWs (J sc = 4.02 mA cm −2 , Á = 1.04%) or the ZnO NCAs (J sc = 7.14 mA cm −2 , Á = 2.56%) photoanode. Moreover, the electron transport properties of the DSSC based on the ZnO-(NCAs/NWs) photoanode are also discussed.
Solid-State Polymer/ZnO Hybrid Dye Sensitized Solar Cell: A Review
A highly efficient device concept for solid-state hybrid dye-sensitized solar cells has been recently realized. It has been attracted extensive attention as a promising approach to achieve cost effective solar energy. The key property which makes solid-state hybrid dye-sensitized photovoltaic systems so attractive is the potential of simple fabrication and assembling technology. In this article, firstly, we review the recent developments including device operational mechanism of solid-state hybrid dyesensitized solar cells incorporating inorganic nanoparticles as electron transporting material, an organic hole transport materials with photoexcited dye molecules as electron injector into the n-type material and the hole-accepting and transporting properties of polymer. In addition, the enhancement of photoresponse through interaction of near-IR dyes and the polymer hole-transport material have also discussed.
Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, 2017
In this work, two natural dyes extracted from henna and mallow plants with a maximum absorbance at 665 nm were studied and used as sensitizers in the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of the extract revealed the presence of anchoring groups and coloring constituents. Two different structures were prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) using zinc oxide (ZnO) layers to obtain ZnO nanowall (NW) or nanorod (NR) layers employed as a thin film at the photoanode side of the DSSC. The ZnO layers were annealed at different temperatures under various gas sources. Indeed, the forming gas (FG) (N2/H2 95:5) was found to enhance the conductivity by a factor of 103 compared to nitrogen (N2) or oxygen (O2) annealing gas. The NR width varied between 40 and 100 nm and the length from 500 to 1000 nm, depending on the growth time. The obtained NWs had a length of 850 nm. The properties of the developed ZnO NW and NR layers with different th...
International Journal of Photoenergy, 2013
Triphenylene diamine sensitizer comprising donor, electron conducting, and anchoring group is synthesized for a potential application in dye-sensitized solar cells. Absorption spectrum, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of triphenylene diamine have been investigated. Two different electrodes are used for dye-sensitized solar cells. The performances of ZnO nanorod electrodes are compared to ZnO : CdO nanocomposite electrode. Also, the theoretical calculations for HOMO and LUMO orbitals are used to estimate the photovoltaic properties of organic sensitizer in the design stage. ZnO : CdO nanocomposite electrode-based dye-sensitized solar cell sensitized with organic sensitizer exhibits higher efficiencies than ZnO nanorod electrode. For a typical device, a solar energy conversion efficiency (η) of 0.80 based on ZnO : CdO nanocomposite is achieved under simulated AM 1.5 solar irradiation (100 mW cm−2) with a short circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) of 3.10 mA/cm2, an open-circ...
Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO nanocrystals
Nanotechnology, 2010
We report on the development of solution-processed ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cells. We fabricate mesoporous ZnO electrodes from sol-gel processed nanoparticles, which are subsequently sensitized with conventional ruthenium complexes and infiltrated with the solid-state hole transporter medium 2, 2', 7, 7'-tetrakis-(N, N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9, 9'-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD). Starting from ZnO nanorods synthesized from solution, we investigate the porous ZnO film morphology using various precursor
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Based on ZnO Non-and Vertically Aligned Nanorod Structures
DSSCs performance can be enhanced by modifying the morphology of photoelectrode. Apart from titanium dioxide, TiO 2 ,the widely used oxide semiconductors for DSSC photoelectrode,ZnO-based DSSC is interesting to be developed due to its higher position of the conduction band compared to that of TiO 2 allowing possibility to generate higher photovoltage. In this study, ZnO-based DSSCs were fabricated by employing non-and vertically aligned nanorod. They were synthesized by co-precipitation method using precursor of ZnAc dihydrate. ZnO based DSSCs were sensitized with anthocyanin natural dye extracted from mangosteen pericarp and Ru-based dye (N719).As expected, the efficiencies of ZnO non-vertically aligned in natural dye were less than that of ZnO vertically aligned in N719 dye. Faster electron transport in ZnO vertically aligned structure could minimize the electron recombination rate which reduces the photocurrent. However, both structures showed that the annealing the photoelectrode at temperatures of 250-300 o C could generate higher conversion efficiency.Higher annealing temperature may lead to a higher ZnO crystallinity and further increases the open circuit photovoltage.
Advanced Functional Materials, 2008
ZnO films consisting of either polydisperse or monodisperse aggregates of nanocrystallites were fabricated and studied as dye-sensitized solar-cell electrodes. The results revealed that the overall energy-conversion efficiency of the cells could be significantly affected by either the average size or the size distribution of the ZnO aggregates. The highest overall energy-conversion efficiency of $4.4% was achieved with the film formed by polydisperse ZnO aggregates with a broad size distribution from 120 to 360 nm in diameter. Light scattering by the submicrometer-sized ZnO aggregates was employed to explain the improved solar-cell performance through extending the distance travelled by light so as to increase the lightharvesting efficiency of photoelectrode film. The broad distribution of aggregate size provides the ZnO films with both better packing and an enhanced ability to scatter the incident light, and thus promotes the solar-cell performance.
ZnO-Nanorod Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: New Structure without a Transparent Conducting Oxide Layer
International Journal of Photoenergy, 2010
Conventional nanorod-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are fabricated by growing nanorods on top of a transparent conducting oxide (TCO, typically fluorine-doped tin oxide—FTO). The heterogeneous interface between the nanorod and TCO forms a source for carrier scattering. This work reports on a new DSSC architecture without a TCO layer. The TCO-less structure consists of ZnO nanorods grown on top of a ZnO film. The ZnO film replaced FTO as the TCO layer and the ZnO nanorods served as the photoanode. The ZnO nanorod/film structure was grown by two methods: (1) one-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (2) two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD). The thicknesses of the nanorods/film grown by CVD is more uniform than that by CBD. We demonstrate that the TCO-less DSSC structure can operate properly as solar cells. The new DSSCs yield the best short-current density of 3.96 mA/ and a power conversion efficiency of 0.73% under 85 mW/ of simulated solar illumination. The open-circuit ...
Photochemical performance of ZnO nanostructures in dye sensitized solar cells
Solid State Sciences, 2015
In this work, the photoconversion efficiencies of ZnO having diverse microstructures and structural defects have been investigated. A conversion efficiency of 1.38% was achieved for the DSSCs fabricated with as prepared ZnO nanorods having minimum vacancy defects and a favourable one dimensional directional pathway for electron conduction. The DSSCs fabricated with ZnO nanoparticles exhibited relatively low conversion efficiency of 1.004% probably due to multiple trapping/detrapping phenomena within the grain boundaries and ZnO flowers though exhibited a high dye adsorption capability exhibited the lowest conversion efficiency of 0.59% due to a high concentration of structural defects. Based on the experimental evidences, we believe that the type of defects and their concentrations are more important than shape in controlling the overall performance of ZnO based DSSCs.