Low-cost solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell based on ZnO with CuSCN as a hole transport material using simple solution chemistry

Abstract

Here, we report the deposition of CuSCN as a p-type hole transport material (HTM) using simple and inexpensive chemical route viz. successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique over ruthenium metal-free Eosin-Y dye-sensitized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod film prepared by chemical bath deposition method at a low temperature. It is shown that the methods used for the deposition are cost effective, post annealing of ZnO at relatively low temperature (200 °C), dye used as an active layer is inexpensive and the SILAR deposited CuSCN thin film was used as it is without any subsequent annealing towards the preparation of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (SS-DSSC), which plays a vital role towards the reduction of device fabrication cost. The prepared structure was characterized for structural, optical, morphological and compositional studies. Finally, the device was characterized for photovoltaic measurements under dark and illumination of simulated sunlight at standard AM 1.5G condition (1 sun, 100 mW/cm2). The SS-DSSC fabricated at low temperature was found to yield 0.072% efficiency made with CuSCN as HTM and Eosin-Y as sensitizer.