Preparation of Aligned ZnO Nanorod Arrays on Sn-Doped ZnO Thin Films by Sonicated Sol-Gel Immersion Fabricated for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

I Saurdi,M H Mamat,M Rusop,M F Malek

doi:10.1155/2014/636725

Abstract

Aligned ZnO Nanorod arrays are deposited on the Sn-doped ZnO thin film via sonicated sol-gel immersion method. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of the Sn-doped ZnO thin films were investigated. Results show that the Sn-doped ZnO thin films with small grain size (~20 nm), high average transmittance (96%) in visible region, and good resistivity7.7 × 102 Ω·cm are obtained for 2 at.% Sn doping concentration. The aligned ZnO nanorod arrays with large surface area were also obtained for 2 at.% Sn-doped ZnO thin film. They were grown on sol-gel derived Sn-doped ZnO thin film, which acts as a seed layer, via sonicated sol-gel immersion method. The grown aligned ZnO nanorod arrays show high transmittance at visible region. The fabricated dye-sensitised solar cell based on the 2.0 at.% Sn-doped ZnO thin film with aligned ZnO nanorod arrays exhibits improved current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and conversion efficiency compared with the undoped ZnO and 1 at.% Sn-doped ZnO thin films.

Highlights

One-dimensional Zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor has been widely studied because it exists in several advantageous nanostructures, such as nanosheet, nanowires (NWs), and nanoflowers which have attracted much attention for various applications because of their unique properties [1]
The diameter of the aligned ZnO nanorod grown on sample R is smaller than the aligned ZnO nanorod grown on sample P and Q. This result can be due to the dependence of the diameter of ZnO nanorod and the distances between ZnO nanorods on the grain size and interspaces of the seed layer, respectively, which are confirmed by the results shown in Figure 1 and similar to the results reported by Zhang and Que [28]
The ZnO nanorods grown on Sn-doped ZnO seed layer exhibit high transmittance in the visible region

Summary

Introduction

One-dimensional ZnO semiconductor has been widely studied because it exists in several advantageous nanostructures, such as nanosheet, nanowires (NWs), and nanoflowers which have attracted much attention for various applications because of their unique properties [1]. Metaldoped ZnO can be prepared via several techniques such as atomic layer deposition [10], chemical vapour deposition [11], sol- gel [12], pulsed laser deposition [13], RF sputtering [14], spray pyrolysis [15], and so forth. Among these techniques, sol-gel is the most effective in terms of cost and economical production. The aligned ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on Sn-doped ZnO films using a sonicated sol-gel immersion method. The aligned ZnO nanorod arrays were used as photoanodes in DSSC and their photovoltaic were evaluated

Experimental Detail

Findings

Result and Discussion

Conclusion