Synthesis of ZnO Nanorod Using Hydrothermal Technique for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Application

Abstract

In this work, ZnO nanorods layer has been synthesized using hydrothermal technique as electron transport layer of dye sensitized solar cell. The time of growth process has been varied in order to obtain pristine layer of ZnO nanorods. Growth processes duration between 5 to 15 h have been performed and followed by annealing process set at 90 °C for 180 min. The natural dye of curcuma longa is used as a sensitizer to complete the cell. The morphology and structure of synthesized ZnO nanorods layer were then characterized by X-RD, Raman spectroscopy and SEM. SEM result shows that the growth duration effected the density, surface morphology, diameter, shape and alignment of ZnO nanorods layer structure. There are some shape of multilinked structures like rice-shape and tetrapod of ZnO that formed along the growth time. It is observed that the growth process for 10 h produced the highest density while with 15 h of growth duration, the ZnO nanorods were vertically well aligned with uniform size and diameter. In addition, XRD results display strong and sharp peaks located (2θ) between 34.74 and 35.99° which corresponds with (002) plane, indicating an excellent crystal quality of the ZnO nanorods. From the Raman spectra, the active raman optical mode of E2(high) peak is obtained at 421 cm−1 while transverse optical phonon mode (A1(TO)) at 372 cm−1 and E1(L) at 590 cm−1 corresponding to the characteristic of wurtzite hexagonal phase. Electrical measurement shows that as the growth time increases, the current obtained also increases due to the larger surface area.KeywordsDye-sensitized solar cellZnO nanorodGrowth time