A novel electrospun cobalt-doped zinc oxide nanofibers as photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

In this article, we developed pure and Cobalt-doped Zinc oxide nanofibers as photoanodes for Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application. The prepared pure and Co-doped Zinc oxide nanofibers are characterized using Thermo-gravimetric/Differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-Dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The photo-conversion efficiency of the DSSC fabricated with the electrospun pure and Cobalt-doped Zinc oxide nanofibers as photoanodes are found to be highest for 5 wt% Co-doped ZnO nanofibers. It has achieved an enhanced photocurrent density of 5.36 , fill factor of 0.731 and power conversion efficiency of 2.97% under AM 1.5 illumination. The presence cobalt ions in the Zinc oxide nanofibers, obstructs the recombination of the excited electrons with the dye or the electrolyte and thereby enhance with higher efficiency than pure Zinc oxide (η% = 1.63%).