Characterization of zinc oxide dye-sensitized solar cell incorporation with single-walled carbon nanotubes
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Sahbudin Shaari Department of Electrical, Electronic & System Engineering, Photonic Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Mohd Raihan Taha Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia (Received 17 November 2012; accepted 24 January 2013)
Zinc oxide (ZnO)–single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) nanocomposite thin films have been grown by chemical bath deposition method. The changes in structural and chemical properties were studied by means of x-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The average crystallite size of ZnO doped with 0.1 and 0.5 wt% SWCNTs was measured about 14.69 and 17.76 nm, respectively. Texture coefficient of the carbon peak (002) was investigated as more than 3.2995 for ZnO mixed with 0.5 wt% SWCNTs. SEM images revealed the ZnO and SWCNTs entangled between the particles. TEM images estimated the inner and outer diameters of SWCNTs to be about 4.86 and 11.32 nm, respectively. FTIR analysis proved the formation of Zn–O and C bonding in the thin films. The performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was found to depend on the loading of SWCNTs. The power conversion efficiency increased from 0.078 to 0.684% after loading with 0.1 wt% SWCNTs. Higher amount of SWCNTs (0.5 wt%) was determined as ineffective in improving the performance of ZnO-based DSSCs. I. INTRODUCTION
Zinc oxide (ZnO) with direct wide band gap energy of 3.37 eV has been widely studied for optoelectronic devices,1 chemical sensors, piezoelectric transducers, transparent electrodes, photocatalysts, electroluminescent devices, ultraviolet laser diode applications, optical and electronic applications,2,3 field-emission, high sensitivity gas sensors, biosensors, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs),4 and antibacterial purposes.5 ZnO also has large exciton-binding energy at room temperature (60 meV), excellent thermal stability, high mechanical strength and high chemical stability.1,3 It can be synthesized and fabricated as a thin film using various methods such as chemical bath deposition (CBD), spray pyrolysis, sol–gel spin coating, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD).2 For growing 1-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanostructures for DSSCs, CBD has been considered as an efficient and low-cost technique to synthesize and fabricate the ZnO thin film. CBD also involves very simple experimental work and produces very small crystal size a)
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2013.25 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 28, No. 13, Jul 14, 2013
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with high porosity suitable for depositing nanocrystalline films.6 Meanwhile, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been one of the most efficient materials due to their superior ele
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