Synthesis and Deposition of ZnO NRs/TiO2 on Zinc Oxide Seed Layer for Dye Synthesize Solar Cell

Abstract

Dye synthesis solar cells (DSSCs) are an innovative method of generating electricity, but their efficiency lags behind that of silicon solar cells. To address this issue, numerous strategies have been explored to enhance DSSC performance, such as employing nanorods to boost electron transport rate in photoanodes, doping materials with different ions, and developing tandem DSSCs. This study focuses on synthesizing and depositing a photoanode composed of ZnO nanorods (NRs) and TiO2 (ZT) on a zinc oxide seed layer. ZnO nanoparticles and nanorods were created using spin coating and hydrothermal methods. The growth of vertically aligned nanorods serves to enhance electron transport rate, with the seed layer precursor concentration influencing the nanorod morphology. The morphology, structure, optical properties, and electrical properties were evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectrometer, and solar simulator. Electron microscope images exhibit nanorods, nanoparticles, and other distinct structures generated through the hydrothermal method. XRD analysis confirms the presence of crystalline zinc oxide and TiO2 in the synthesized materials. The optical bandgap of ZT-1.0M is determined to be 3.84 eV, while that of ZT-0.7M is 3.924 eV, suggesting a larger bandgap value for the latter, possibly due to variation in crystalline size. The conversion efficiency of DSSC is observed to be 0.7645% for ZT-1.0M and 0.6469% for ZT-0.7M, indicating an improvement in performance.