Facile synthesis of ZnO nanowires on FTO glass for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Long and well-aligned ZnO nanowires were hydrothermally synthesized on FTO glass based on a ZnO seed layer which was prepared by spin-coating and annealing techniques. The effect of the growth solution refreshment on the morphology of ZnO nanowires was investigated and the possible mechanism was discussed. After refreshing the growth solution for 5 cycles, ZnO nanowires of ∼ 120 nm in diameter and ∼ 20 μm in length were obtained. The prepared ZnO nanowires were used as photoelectrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), showing excellent photovoltaic performance. With the increase of growth cycles of ZnO nanowires, the photocurrent of DSSCs increased obviously due to the increased dye loading on the surface of ZnO nanowires. The results indicated that the long and well-aligned ZnO nanowires are promising for DSSCs application.