Controllable synthesis of ZnO nanorods at different temperatures for enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cell performance

Abstract

Vertically-aligned ZnO nanorods were grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates at different bath temperatures. This method has been effectively applied to fabricate efficient nanorod based photo-anodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Photovoltaic performance of the cell was found to be enhanced on the bath temperature used to synthesize nanorods. Crystallinity and morphology of the prepared ZnO nanorod has been studied using X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV–Visible spectroscopy and Current–Voltage (J–V) measurements. The effect of bath temperature on the photovoltaic performance was investigated under one-sun illumination. The photo-energy conversion efficiency (PCEs) shows that DSSCs prepared at lower bath temperature shows better performance than those prepared at higher bath temperature.