Hydrothermal Growth and Application of ZnO Nanowire Films with ZnO and TiO2Buffer Layers in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

This paper reports the effects of the seed layers prepared by spin-coating and dip-coating methods on the morphology and density of ZnO nanowire arrays, thus on the performance of ZnO nanowire-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The nanowire films with the thick ZnO buffer layer (~0.8–1 μm thick) can improve the open circuit voltage of the DSSCs through suppressing carrier recombination, however, and cause the decrease of dye loading absorbed on ZnO nanowires. In order to further investigate the effect of TiO2buffer layer on the performance of ZnO nanowire-based DSSCs, compared with the ZnO nanowire-based DSSCs without a compact TiO2buffer layer, the photovoltaic conversion efficiency and open circuit voltage of the ZnO DSSCs with the compact TiO2layer (~50 nm thick) were improved by 3.9–12.5 and 2.4–41.7%, respectively. This can be attributed to the introduction of the compact TiO2layer prepared by sputtering method, which effectively suppressed carrier recombination occurring across both the film–electrolyte interface and the substrate–electrolyte interface.

One-step synthesis of composite thin film with ZnSe and PbTeSe ternary solid solution

“…Semiconductor nanocrystals provide a shift in optical absorption edge due to quantum size effects, capable of tuning an optical gap to effective energy region for absorbing visible and near infrared light in solar radiation spectrum [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Preparation and low temperature stability of PbTe nanocrystals embedded in ZnTe matrix by hot-wall deposition

“…Nanocomposites with different combinations in nanocrystal and matrix were proposed using chemical or physical preparation techniques [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

One-Step Physical Synthesis of Composite Thin Film

“…Up to now, various nanocrystalline materials [InP (Zaban et al, 1998), CdSe (Liu & Kamat, 1994), CdS (Weller, 1991;Zhu et al, 2010), PbS (Hoyer & Könenkamp, 1995), and Ge (Chatterjee et al, 2006)] have been investigated, for instance, as the sensitizer for TiO 2 . Alternatively, a wide-gap semiconductor ZnO is also investigated, since the band gap and the energetic position of the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum of ZnO are very close to that of TiO 2 (Yang et al, 2009). Most of these composite materials were synthesized through chemical techniques, however, physical deposition, such as sputtering, is also useful.…”