Effect of growth solution concentration on the performance of gallium doped ZnO nanostructures dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis of gallium doped ZnO nanostructures via seed mediated growth hydrothermal technique and their application as photo-anode in DSSC. ZnO nanostructures have been grown on Flourin Tin Oxide (FTO). The precursor used in this research was zinc-nitrate-hexahydrate (Zn (NO3)2.6H2O) and hexa-metylene-tetramine (HMT) was chosen as surfactant. The growth process was carried out at various precursor solution concentrations, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 M at 90°C for 8 hours. The growth solution was then doped with 1% wt gallium nitrate hydrate. The grown ZnO nanostructures were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) and UV-Vis Spectroscopy. The samples were crystalline with wurtzite-hexagonal and their crystal orientation was (100), (002), (101), and (110). The morphological shape of the samples changed with the concentration of the precursor. The optical absorption decreased as the concentration increased. As can be seen from SEM images that the diameter of the particles ranged from 95 to 500 nm and the thickness ranged from 1540 to 3640 nm (1.54-3.64 µm). The best performance of DSSC was obtained from the sample utilizing the ZnO nanostructures prepared at 0.1 M precursor, with their photovoltaic parameters were the Jsc of 2.190 mA cm−2, FF of 0.39, and η of 0.41%, respectively.