| CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY |
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Performances of ZnO-Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Fabricated by Hydrothermal Synthesis and Sol-Gel Technique |
| ZHU Li1, FAN Yu-Qing1, ZHAO Mao-Cong1, WU Min2, ZHANG Jia-Yu1, XU Chun-Xiang1, CUI Yi-Ping1 |
| 1Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 2100962School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211198 |
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| Cite this article: |
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ZHU Li, FAN Yu-Qing, ZHAO Mao-Cong et al 2009 Chin. Phys. Lett. 26 018401 |
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Abstract ZnO is introduced as an alternative to TiO2 in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) due to its band gap similar to TiO2, higher electron mobility, and flexible procedures of preparations. Several samples of ZnO films are prepared with the hydrothermal synthesis method and the sol-gel technique, respectively. These ZnO films were assembled as photoanodes in DSSCs using N3 dye as the sensitizer. The ZnO-based cells prepared by the hydrothermal synthesis show typical current source characteristics, whose fill factor (FF) is 0.44 and photo-to-electric power conversion efficiency is 0.34%. On the other hand, all the samples prepared with the sol-gel technique show accompanied source characteristics with relatively higher power conversion efficiencies (1%) but a lower FF (0.26). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements indicate that the sol-gel samples have small particles sizes. Therefore, sol-gel samples could adsorb more dye molecules to generate high conversion efficiencies. At the same time, more grain boundaries make it more possible for injected electrons to recombine with the oxidized electrolyte. Hydrothermal samples have bigger grains, so they show poor conversion efficiency and relatively high FF.
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| Keywords:
84.60.Jt
73.40.Mr
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Received: 12 September 2008
Published: 24 December 2008
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| PACS: |
84.60.Jt
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(Photoelectric conversion)
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73.40.Mr
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(Semiconductor-electrolyte contacts)
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