Performances of ZnO-Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Fabricated by Hydrothermal Synthesis and Sol-Gel Technique

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.