Zno Nanorods/Nanoparticles: Novel Hydrothermal Synthesis, Characterization and Formation Mechanism for Increasing the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were successfully synthesized via a novel hydrothermal route using new set of starting reagents including Zn(OAc) 2 ·2H 2 O, ethylenediamine and hydrazine. The as-synthesized products were characterized by techniques including X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectromet...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cluster science 2016-07, Vol.27 (4), p.1451-1462
Main Authors: Zarghami, Zabihullah, Ramezani, Majid, Motevalli, Kourosh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalysis
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Dye-sensitized solar cells
Dyes
Efficiency
Electrodes
Electrolytes
Electrophoresis
Ethanol
Ethylenediamine
Fourier transforms
Hydrazines
Infrared spectra
Inorganic Chemistry
Metal oxides
Morphology
Nanochemistry
Nanoparticles
Nanorods
Nanostructure
Original Paper
Photovoltaic cells
Physical Chemistry
Radiation
Reagents
Solar cells
Synthesis
Zinc oxide
Zinc oxides
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Summary:Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were successfully synthesized via a novel hydrothermal route using new set of starting reagents including Zn(OAc) 2 ·2H 2 O, ethylenediamine and hydrazine. The as-synthesized products were characterized by techniques including X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectrometry, Scanning electron microscopy, fourier transform infrared spectra and diffused reflectance UV–Vis spectrum and a possible growth mechanism of the ZnO nanorods was proposed. As-obtained products were utilized as photo-anode electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells and ZnO nanostructures were deposited on FTO via electrophoresis-based method. Moreover, effect of ethylenediamine and hydrazine on morphology and consequently, on solar cells efficiency was evaluated. The results showed that particle size and morphology have salient effect on solar cells efficiency and rod-like nanostructures of ZnO with smaller length and diameter have higher efficiency compared to spherical ZnO nanostructures. In addition, depositing of ZnO nanorods on ZnO nanoparticles led to obtaining 3.85 % cell efficiency that in comparison with sole nanorods (2.81 %) and sole nanoparticles (2.07 %), efficiency improvements of 37 and 86 % were respectively achieved.
ISSN:1040-7278
1572-8862
DOI:10.1007/s10876-016-1011-1