ZnO Nanocones with High-Index {101̅1} Facets for Enhanced Energy Conversion Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Chang, Jin; Ahmed, Rasin; Wang, Hongxia; Liu, Hong Wei; Li, Renzhi; Wang, Peng; Waclawik, Eric R.

doi:10.1021/jp402742n

Cited by 58 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…10 In the following of crystal growth habits, the higher energy lattice plane, such as {0001} facets, would grow faster than lower energy lattice plane.…”

Section: 5-9mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjusting the proportions of {0001} facets and high-index facets of ZnO hexagonal prisms and their photocatalytic activity

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2017

RSC Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Zinc oxide (ZnO) hexagonal prisms with unique nanostructures are successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method with the assistance of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Further studies demonstrated that dissolved PEG played a critical role in adjusting the exposed proportion of {0001} facets and high-index facets. By increasing the amount of PEG, we successfully reduced the exposed proportion of {0001} facets and increased the exposed proportion of high-index facets. The morphology and the properties of ZnO hexagonal prisms were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N 2 gas adsorption-desorption isotherms, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra.The photocatalytic activity of the ZnO hexagonal prisms was investigated by photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution under UV-vis light irradiation. Results showed that the ZnO hexagonal prism samples with a high percentage of exposed high-index facets exhibited superior photocatalytic activity. The idea that adjusting the proportion of different facets to enhance the photocatalytic activity of ZnO samples is a meaningful study.

show abstract

“…10 In the following of crystal growth habits, the higher energy lattice plane, such as {0001} facets, would grow faster than lower energy lattice plane.…”

Section: 5-9mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjusting the proportions of {0001} facets and high-index facets of ZnO hexagonal prisms and their photocatalytic activity

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2017

RSC Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…An effective solution to successfully enhance the amount of adsorbed dye molecules is represented by the fabrication of nanostructured ZnO photoanodes. Indeed ZnO can be easily synthesized in countless low‐dimensional structures, such as nanowires, nanotubes, nanoflowers, nanocones, coral‐like, sponge‐like, and nanocrystal aggregates, that show increased surface‐to‐volume ratios and hence high surface areas exposed to the dye molecules. In this way the higher dye loading ability of TiO 2 can be pursued, together with the possibility to control the wetting behavior of the ZnO photoanodes, that ensure a proper functionalization with the light absorbing molecules .…”

Section: Surface‐engineering Of Zno Nanostructures With Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface Engineering of Nanostructured ZnO Surfaces

Laurenti

Stassi

Canavese

et al. 2016

Adv Materials Inter

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

are oriented in one direction and their assembly and stacking produces the wurtzite hexagonal symmetry. The noncentrosymmetric and anisotropic crystalline structure of wurtzite-like ZnO generates very interesting properties such as piezo-and pyro-electricity: the application of an external stimulus, like mechanical stress or temperature, deforms the tetrahedron structure. This deformation results in a separation between the positive and negative centers of charge, inducing the formation of a dipole moment. [7,8] The polar surface and anisotropic structure of ZnO can be usefully exploited to form different kinds of micro and nanostructures from 0D to 3D, [5] including, but not limited to nanowires, [9][10][11][12] nanotubes, [13,14] nanobelts, [15][16][17][18][19] nanorings, [20] flower-like morphologies, [21][22][23][24][25] multipods, [26,27] tetrapods, [28][29][30] sponge-like structures [31][32][33][34] and so on [29,[35][36][37][38][39] (Figure 1). Therefore, several research efforts have been invested in studying various preparation procedures for ZnO micro and nano-materials. Wet chemical approaches, like sol-gel, hydrothermal growths, electrodeposition and template-assisted routes, [40,41] as well as vapor-phase methods, for example chemical vapour deposition (CVD), physical vapour deposition (PVD) including sputtering and evaporation approaches, [42][43][44] and epitaxial growth methods [45] are among the most used ones. The great advantages of the wet chemical approaches are the high synthesis versatility, low temperature employed and low costs. [9] From the other side, dry methods take advantage of the high quality and excellent control over the level of crystallinity of the synthesized ZnO structures, as well as the absence of contamination and high purity of the final material. [46] The combination of different properties with the ease and high versatile synthesis of ZnO material in different micro and nanostructures offers a huge possibility of potential applications.For example, ZnO is already used as an efficient catalyst in the selective oxidation of involving oxygenates (i.e., alcohols, aldehydes, and carboxylic acids) and in methanol synthesis catalysts. It is also largely applied as protective, anti-corrosion layer in galvanized steel products, [49][50][51] as well as in paints and sunscreens as an UV absorber. Its biocompatibility makes this material suitable, in the form of microparticles, for paste formulations in cosmetic applications.The combination of the piezoelectric with the semiconducting properties of ZnO is found to result into new exciting physical properties, [52][53][54] and it has recently opened the research field to energy harvesting application. ZnO nanomaterials can be thus used as nanogenerators, able to convert the mechanical deformation from the surrounding environment into electrical Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures represent promising substrate materials for numerous applications, ranging from new generation solar cells, to bio-and chemical sensors. This interest is due ...

show abstract

“…In previous sealing method, cell was sealed then electrolyte was injecting through one or two holes in counter electrode. Then the backside of the cell was sealed by polymer film [20,21]. FTO/T1/T2/T3/Ag with 2 min time treatment for 1500 hours was studied.…”

Section: Stability Of the Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Plasmonic-Improved dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Silver Nanoparticles Between Titanium Dioxide Layers

Amiri

Salavati‐Niasari

Farangi

et al. 2015

Electrochimica Acta

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ZnO Nanocones with High-Index {101̅1} Facets for Enhanced Energy Conversion Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Cited by 58 publications

References 44 publications

Adjusting the proportions of {0001} facets and high-index facets of ZnO hexagonal prisms and their photocatalytic activity

Adjusting the proportions of {0001} facets and high-index facets of ZnO hexagonal prisms and their photocatalytic activity

Surface Engineering of Nanostructured ZnO Surfaces

Stable Plasmonic-Improved dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Silver Nanoparticles Between Titanium Dioxide Layers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About