Low-Temperature Fabrication of Dye-Sensitized ZnO Electrodes via Zinc Hydroxide Acetate by Utilizing Liquid Phase

Abstract

For fabrication of plastic dye-sensitized solar cells, we propose a dissolution and precipitation method to form nanostructured ZnO films on plastic substrates. Layered hydroxide zinc acetate (LHZA) films on plastic substrates were immersed in acetonitrile at 60 oC. They were converted into ZnO films through the dissolution of LHZA and the precipitation of ZnO in acetonitrile. The resultant films contained a large amount of zinc acetate compound impurities, which were attempted to be removed from the ZnO films by dissolving in water. We achieved the energy conversion efficiency of 2.3% for the N719/ZnO electrode on an ITO-PEN substrate.