Study of sol-gel derived porous ZnO photoelectrode for the application of dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In this study, the porous zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited on SnO2:F coated glass substrate by sol-gel technique with zinc acetate as precursor, ethanol as solvent, and diethanolamine as chelating agent. Two sets of ZnO films with equal number of coatings and the same film thicknesses were deposited with various zinc acetate concentrations. The surface morphology of the porous ZnO film strongly depends on the zinc acetate concentration. It was also revealed from the optical study that the dye absorption increases with an increase in the zinc acetate concentration. The ZnO film with 1.0mol∕l zinc acetate concentration has shown the best porous structure and maximum rms roughness value (187nm). The maximum photoelectric conversion efficiencies, 0.64% and 0.8%, were achieved for ZnO films with 1.0mol∕l of zinc acetate concentration in both sets of samples: equal number of coatings and the same film thicknesses, respectively.