Application of hydrothermally synthesized zinc oxide nanorods in quantum dots-sensitized solar cells
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Xiaoping Zoua) Research Center for Sensor Technology, Beijing Key Laboratory for sensor, Ministry-of- Education Key Laboratory for Modern Measurement and Control Technology, School of Applied Sciences, Beijing information Science and Technology University, Jianxiangqiao Campus, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China; and State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Zhe Sun, Gongqing Teng, and Chuan Zhao Research Center for Sensor Technology, Beijing Key Laboratory for sensor, Ministry-of- Education Key Laboratory for Modern Measurement and Control Technology, School of Applied Sciences, Beijing information Science and Technology University, Jianxiangqiao Campus, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China (Received 4 July 2012; accepted 14 January 2013)
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterial is a superior material for photoanode. However, the different reaction concentrations, growth time and reaction vessel have influences on the structure and morphology of ZnO, and and ultimately have a bearing on the performance of solar cells. In this article, we used the hydrothermal method for the preparation of ZnO nanostructure. For avoiding direct contact of electrolyte with fluorine-doped tin oxide conducting glass, and decrease the recombination probabilities, we used titanium tetrachloride pretreatment. For obtaining flower-like ZnO nanostructure that was composed of smaller diameter ZnO nanorods, we fabricated a smaller-particle seed layer prior to growing ZnO nanostructure. For the sake of getting the best performances of solar cells, we examined the various effects of different deposition cycles on the performance of the solar cells. We discovered that when the deposition cycles increased, short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor and conversion efficiency all increased. But when the deposition exceeded 9 cycles, the values of all the parameters decreased. When the deposition cycle is 9, the conversion efficiency is 1.156%.
I. INTRODUCTION
Since O’Regan and Grätzel first reported the dyesensitized TiO2 solar cell with conversion efficiency of over 7% in 1991, the photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) based on metal oxide semiconductor [titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), tin dioxide (SnO2)] nanoelectrodes have attracted more and more attention. However, the band gaps of TiO2, ZnO and SnO2 are so large (usually greater than 3 eV) that they can only absorb a small part of visible light. To enhance the absorption in visible light, it is necessary to sensitize the metal oxide semiconductor nanoelectrodes. As a result, many sensitizers have been explored and dye sensitizers have been intensively studied. In addition to dye sensitizers, semiconductors with narrow band gaps have recently attracted much attention due to their excellent properties, such as higher absorption, greater stability and adjustable band gap.2 1
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Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2013.11 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 28, No. 6, Mar 28, 2013
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