Photonic sintering of a ZnO nanosheet photoanode using flash white light combined with deep UV irradiation for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The present report details research work on the photonic sintering of ZnO nanosheets (ZnO NSs), which were synthesized via a solid-state synthesis method.

To investigate opulence of graphene in ZnO/graphene nanocomposites based dye sensitized solar cells

“…DSSC is a 3rd-generation solar cell [5] having capacitive nature that employs high band gap nanostructured semiconductors like TiO 2 , ZnO [8,9], Nb 2 O 5 , SrTiO 3 [10], SnO 2 [11] and their composites as photoelectrode materials. As ZnO is known to be a wide band gap (3.37 eV) n-type semiconductor that is identical to TiO 2 (3.23 eV) hence similar electron injection actions are expected for both these materials [12] Due to high electron mobility (~107 times more) and lower recombination rate, electron lifetime is considerably higher in ZnO as compared to TiO 2 . Moreover, good transparency to visible light, high photo activity and nanocrystalline ZnO of varying morphologies has assumed to be more favorable and potential material for use in DSSCs [13][14][15].…”

Printed Diodes: Materials Processing, Fabrication, and Applications

“…The function of the annealing is mainly twofold: one is to evaporate the solvent used in solution‐processing alongside other impurities to ensure ideal layer quality, and the other is to partially or fully melt the separated nanoparticles together to get better conductivity or chemically convert the deposited precursor to a stable semiconductor layer via thermal energy. Currently there are two major thermal annealing methods: i) conventional thermal annealing via furnace, oven, or hotplate; ii) photothermal annealing via laser or flash lamp . The first annealing approach has been widely used for most printing applications like transistors or sensors with printed electrodes from Ag/Au nanoparticle inks due to the low‐cost and simplicity in implementation of such a method .…”

“…Another annealing approach, termed photothermal annealing, relies on light to directly deliver thermal energy to the necessary layer . The most common method is to use a focused laser beam for the sintering.…”

“…The short‐term UV light pulses emitted from xenon lamps can be tuned through the pulse duration, flash number, and power output parameters to maximize the thermal energy output to the target layer (>800 °C) while minimizing impact to the substrate . The xenon lamps can be combined with roll‐to‐roll based processes, resulting in large‐area processability and high efficiency . Due to the cost‐effective and environmentally friendly merits of photothermal annealing method, it has been attracting more attention and applications in the past few years.…”

Effect of Particle Size on the Performance of TiO2 Based Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

“…In recent years, development of the renewable energy sources is being given considerable attention because of their emission‐free, renewable, clean, and eco‐friendly way of energy generation. Especially, dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted great attention as they can be made from inexpensive components involving very simple fabrication processes and reached promising efficiency levels . DSSCs essentially consist of a nanocrystalline photoanode material casted over transparent conducting substrates (FTO:SnO 2 ), a sensitizing dye, electrolyte (iodide/tri‐iodide) and counter electrode (usually Pt or carbon).…”