Electrochemical Deposition of ZnO Nanorods on Transparent Reduced Graphene Oxide Electrodes for Hybrid Solar Cells

Abstract

Monocrystalline ZnO nanorods (NRs) with high donor concentration are electrochemically deposited on highly conductive reduced graphene oxide (rGO) films on quartz. The film thickness, optical transmittance, sheet resistance, and roughness of rGO films are systematically studied. The obtained ZnO NRs on rGO films are characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and Raman spectra. As a proof-of-concept application, the obtained ZnO NRs on rGO are used to fabricate inorganic-organic hybrid solar cells with layered structure of quartz/rGO/ZnO NR/poly(3-hexylthiophene)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (P3HT/PEDOT:PSS)/Au. The observed power conversion efficiency (PCE, eta), approximately 0.31%, is higher than that reported in previous solar cells by using graphene films as electrodes. These results clearly demonstrate that rGO films with a higher conductivity have a smaller work function and show a better performance in the fabricated solar cells.

Green biosynthesis and characterization of zinc oxide nanoparticles usingCorymbia citriodoraleaf extract and their photocatalytic activity

“…Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a well-known n-type semiconductor with a band gap of 3.37 eV and excitation binding energy of 60 meV, hence is considered as one of the best photocatalysts to degradation of pollutant in water (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). In order to enhance the photocatalytic property of ZnO, nano-sized ZnO have been synthesized to increase the surface area and enhance the photocatalytic activity.…”

Graphene-based hybrid materials and their applications in energy storage and conversion

“…and fluorine tin oxide in optoelectronic devices owing to its high electron mobility, high thermal stability, and flexibility [4,5]. Graphene films are fabricated because of the solution processable operation of (functionalized) graphene sheets, such as the spinning coating methods [55,56].…”

“…The interaction between graphene and P3OT/P3HT makes this composite work well as the active layer in bulk heterojunction-organic photovoltaic devices and the best power conversion efficiency of could be obtained at 1.4% under sun light illumination from a filtered Xenon lamp [55] ( Figure 11). …”

An experimental study of nonlinear behaviour of capacitance in graphene/carbon nanotube hybrid films

“…It plays an essential role beside the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the nanomaterial's world due to their outstanding mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties [7][8][9][10][11], which make it suitable for wide applications such as field-effect transistors [12], batteries [13], solar cells [14], fuel cells [15], actuators [16,17], and supercapacitors [18][19][20][21].…”