Growth of Diameter-Controlled Zno Nanorod Arrays by Hydrothermal Technique for Polymer Solar Cell Application

Abstract

Well-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNAs) grown on the ZnO seed layers coated ITO substrates ranging in various times from 1.5 to 5 hr have been fabricated from aqueous solutions at low temperature. Morphologies, crystalline structure and optical transmission of as-prepared ZNAs were investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Visible transmission spectra, respectively. The results showed that ZNAs grew vertically from the substrates, having uniform diameter and length distribution, the average diameters of ZnO nanorods increased with increasing growth time when growth time was less than 3 hr. The XRD results showed that ZnO nanorods were wurtzite-structured (hexagonal) ZnO. The high optical transmission in the visible region for ZNAs grown in 1.5 hr was also found. Moreover, we fabricated a solar cell, and a PCE of 0.47% was achieved.