Abstract
Aligned ZnO nanowires with different lengths (1 to approximately 4 μm) have been deposited on indium titanium oxide-coated glass substrates by using the solution phase deposition method for application as a work electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). From the results, the increases in length of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires can increase adsorption of the N3 dye through ZnO nanowires to improve the short-circuit photocurrent (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc), respectively. However, the Jsc and Voc values of DSSC with ZnO nanowires length of 4.0 μm (4.8 mA/cm2 and 0.58 V) are smaller than those of DSSC with ZnO nanowires length of 3.0 μm (5.6 mA/cm2 and 0.62 V). It could be due to the increased length of ZnO nanowires also resulted in a decrease in the transmittance of ZnO nanowires thus reducing the incident light intensity on the N3 dye. Optimum power conversion efficiency (η) of 1.49% was obtained in a DSSC with the ZnO nanowires length of 3 μm.
Highlights
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been studied extensively as a potential alternative to conventional inorganic solid solar cells, by using nanocrystalline TiO2 sensitized with ruthenium polypyridine complexes or metal-free organic dyes as photoelectrodes [1,2,3]
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires deposited for 4 h shows maximum diffraction intension to (002) plane and least to the others, highlight the significant growth of nanowires is oriented along c-axis
These results reveal that the nanowires, crystallized along the ZnO [0001] direction, were hexagonal prisms vertically aligned on the indium titanium oxide (ITO) substrate
Summary
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been studied extensively as a potential alternative to conventional inorganic solid solar cells, by using nanocrystalline TiO2 sensitized with ruthenium polypyridine complexes or metal-free organic dyes as photoelectrodes [1,2,3]. Solar cells based on TiO2 nanoparticles with a size of 10 to 30 nm have been used as photoanodes with demonstrated 11% photovoltaic conversion efficiency [4]. Its much higher carrier mobility is more favorable for the collection of photo-induced electrons [5,6]. DSSCs based on TiO2 nanoparticles network usually consist of a porous layer which serves as the photoelectrode. The porous photoelectrode can provide large surface area for anchoring the light-capturing dye molecules to generate electron-hole pairs. In this kind of photoelectrode, the photogenerated electrons will interact with a lot of traps when they walk through the random network, which limits the efficiency of the DSSCs
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