Nanostructured ZnO electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Keis, Karin; Bauer, Christophe; Boschloo, Gerrit; Hagfeldt, Anders; Westermark, Karin; Rensmo, Håkan; Siegbahn, Hans

doi:10.1016/s1010-6030(02)00039-4

Cited by 360 publications

(224 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…ZnO has attracted much attention as a next-generation gas sensor for CO [28][29][30] 34 and dye-sensitized solar cells 26,[36][37][38][39] . Sensitivity directly depends on the specific surface area of the sensing material.…”

Section: Morphology Control Of Multi-needle Zno Particles and Their Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology Control of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals

Masuda¹

2011

Nanocrystal

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Section: Morphology Control Of Multi-needle Zno Particles and Their Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology Control of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals

Masuda¹

2011

Nanocrystal

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“…Although most of the reported works on DSSC are based on TiO 2 porous thin films, various structures of ZnO are also being used for DSSC fabrication. 5,[17][18][19] The advantages of using ZnO over TiO 2 are its direct band gap (3.37 eV), higher exciton binding energy (60 meV) compared to TiO 2 (4 meV), 20 22 However, the efficiency of the DSSC based on ZnO nanostructures is still very low (5%). 23 One of the possibilities to enhance the efficiency of ZnO-based DSSC is the enhancement of the light absorbing ability of the DSSC.…”

Section: -1mentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Resonance Energy Transfer in Light Harvesting of Zinc Oxide-Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

et al. 2010

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In this contribution we have studied the dynamics of light harvesting of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) to a surface adsorbed sensitizing dye (SD) N719. By using the picosecond resolved Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) technique we have explored that the excited ZnO NPs resonantly transfer visible optical radiation to the SD N719. The consequence of the energy transfer on the performance of the overall efficiency of a model ZnO NP-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has also been explored. We have demonstrated that the overall efficiency of a ZnO NP-based solar cell significantly depends on the presence of high-energy photons in the solar radiation. In a control experiment on a model TiO 2 NP-based solar cell it has been demonstrated that the presence of high-energy photon has a minimal effect on the performance of the cell as the TiO 2 NPs are incapable of harvesting high-energy photons from solar radiation. The possibility of the back electron transfer from the excited NPs to the SD has also been investigated by studying the NPs in the presence of an ideal electron accepting organic molecule, benzoquinone (BQ). The time constants and nonradiative rate constant obtained for the ZnO/N719 system are found to be different from those of the ZnO/BQ system, which rules out the possibility of back electron transfer from ZnO NPs to SD N719. Moreover, the observed FRET dynamics in the light harvesting process of the nanocrystalites may be efficient in the further use of the nanoparticles in the development of new photodevices.

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“…15 The cells exhibited 5.0% efficiency under 0.1 sun illumination. Moreover, the highest efficiency of 6.58% in ZnO cells was also reported by Saito and Fujihara.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…916 Keis et al used 150-nm spherical ZnO particles as the semiconductor layer in photoelectrodes and compressed the ZnO layer in order to deposit on the conductive substrate at room temperature. 15 The cells exhibited 5.0% efficiency under 0.1 sun illumination. Moreover, the highest efficiency of 6.58% in ZnO cells was also reported by Saito and Fujihara.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Effect of TiCl4 Treatment on Porous ZnO Photoelectrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

SakaiNobuya¹,

KawashimaNorimichi²,

MurakamiTakurou³

2011

Chemistry Letters

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In this study, photoelectrodes composed of a porous layer of 100-nm ZnO particles are fabricated for use in dye-sensitized solar cells. The electrodes are immersed in an aqueous TiCl 4 solution to coat them with a thin layer of TiO 2 for preparation of ZnOTiO 2 coreshell electrodes. This simple treatment drastically improves the cell performance, resulting in the highest obtained efficiency of 3.91%. This efficiency is higher than that of 100-nm TiO 2 particle cells.To date, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been able to achieve 11% solar energy conversion efficiency.13 Although such performance makes DSSCs a viable substitute for amorphous silicon solar cells for use in some electronic devices, it is still necessary to further increase the efficiency of DSSCs so that their use can be scaled to provide energy on the order of gigawatts. 4 For this, technological breakthroughs in terms of better materials are required to advance the development of DSSCs to the next generation. Most photoelectrode technology is based on porous titanium(IV) oxide (TiO 2 ) semiconductor layers. On the other hand, there are some reports of the application of other metal oxides such as tin(IV) oxide (SnO 2 ), niobium(V) oxide (Nb 2 O 5 ), and zinc oxide (ZnO) as the main material for photoelectrodes and for covering material on TiO 2 core particles as a coreshell structure. 5,6 In particular, ZnO has a band gap and energy level of the conduction band edge similar to those of TiO 2 and has an electron diffusion coefficient higher than that of TiO 2 .7,8 Furthermore, ZnO crystals can be synthesized and grown in mild conditions, and their morphology can be easily controlled by synthetic conditions. These characteristics make it very suitable for use as the porous semiconductor layer in DSSCs.916 Keis et al. used 150-nm spherical ZnO particles as the semiconductor layer in photoelectrodes and compressed the ZnO layer in order to deposit on the conductive substrate at room temperature. 15 The cells exhibited 5.0% efficiency under 0.1 sun illumination. Moreover, the highest efficiency of 6.58% in ZnO cells was also reported by Saito and Fujihara. 17 These results indicate that ZnO is a promising photoelectrode material. Nevertheless, the performance of ZnO cells is still considerably inferior to that of TiO 2 cells, especially in terms of fill factor (FF) and open-circuit voltage (V oc ). Carrier recombination in ZnO may be the reason for their inferior performance. 18 In addition, ZnO is chemically unstable and is easily dissolved in acidic and basic solutions. Further, its dyeloading capacity is less than that of TiO 2 . One of the possible solutions to these shortcomings is to cover the ZnO with a stable material. Law et al. covered ZnO nanowires with thin layers of TiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and obtained a high V oc of over 800 mV. 18 Recently, electrodes composed of aggregated ZnO nanoparticles were also covered by TiO 2 using the same ALD techniques, and the obtained efficiency was 6%.However, V oc and FF...

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Nanostructured ZnO electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Cited by 360 publications

References 48 publications

Morphology Control of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals

Morphology Control of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals

Role of Resonance Energy Transfer in Light Harvesting of Zinc Oxide-Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Effect of TiCl4 Treatment on Porous ZnO Photoelectrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

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