Abstract
The present work reports the preparation of nanostructured ZnO nanorods in a hydrothermal-electrochemical process and preliminary attempt to fabricate a dye-sensitized solar cell using this material as photoanode. Synthesis of ZnO nanorods in solutions with and without eosin Y dye, used as nanostructuring agent, was studied. ZnO nanorod arrays were characterized by photoluminescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. Fabricated dye-sensitized solar cell comprised a photoanode prepared with nanostructured ZnO nanorods and eosin Y dye, a platinum counter electrode and an electrolyte consisting of 0.5M KI + 0.03M I2 in acetonitrile/ethylene carbonate (v/v=1/4). Performance parameters of dye-sensitized solar cell were extracted from standard current-voltage characteristic.
Keywords
Nanostructured ZnO nanorods, Hydrothermal-electrochemical process, Dye-sensitized solar cell.
Citation
M. SIMA, M. SECU, E. VASILE, A new ZnO photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cell, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 4, 9, September 2010, pp.1324-1328 (2010).
Submitted at: Sept. 19, 2010
Accepted at: Sept. 15, 2010