Morphological characterization of aluminum‐doped zinc oxide nanomaterials (AZO) for dye‐sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In this work, aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO, Al:ZnO) nanocomposite materials were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method using the microwave oven. Zinc oxide nanostructures were doped with aluminum in different dopant concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0%). AZO materials were analyzed using XRD, SEM and EDX measurements. Also dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) performances of AZOs were investigated. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirms that the synthesized AZO nanomaterials were nanorods and nanoplates in shape and have 200 nm to 974 nm sizes in length and 116.1-269.5 nm in diameters (shown Figure 4-5). Dye-sensitized solar cell efficiencies are higher in 0.5% and 1% AZO nanorod materials. We have found the maximum efficiency as 1.94% for 1% doped AZO nanorod materials. K E Y W O R D Saluminum-doped ZnO, AZO, dye-sensitized solar cell, morphology

Synthesis of TiO2/ZnO photoanodes on FTO conductive glass for photovoltaic applications

“…This recombination happened due to the back recombination of charges between the dye and the counter electrode FTO [49]. Also, in accordance with Ekmekci et al [50], the overall efficiency of the DSSC was better for a lower concentration of titanium. Table IV indicates that this work methodology reached the levels of efficiency obtained by more sophisticated, complex, and expensive deposition methods.…”