Enhanced Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Polyol-Synthesized Nickel–Zinc Oxide Composites

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 252 - 260
• Main Authors: Rajan Philip, Moab, Babu, Rupesh, Vasudevan, Krishnakumar, Nguyen, Hieu Pham Trung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Circuits; Crystal structure; Crystallinity; Dye-sensitized solar cells; Dyes; Efficiency; Electronics and Microelectronics; Energy conversion efficiency; Energy dispersive X ray spectroscopy; Instrumentation; Materials Science; Nickel; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photoluminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Scanning electron microscopy; Short circuit currents; Solid State Physics; Wurtzite; X-ray diffraction; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides; nanomaterials; porous; polyol method; Nickel–zinc oxide; dye-sensitized solar cell
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-018-6699-2

In the present work, nickel–zinc oxide (Ni-ZnO) particles have been fabricated through a modified polyol route at 250°C. The highly porous Ni-ZnO samples developed were of high crystalline quality and exhibited great potential for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications on account of the quadrupled intensity values of short-circuit current density of around 1.42 mA/cm 2 , in contrast to 0.31 mA/cm 2 for a bare zinc oxide (ZnO) device. The conversion efficiency of the Ni-ZnO DSSC was measured to be 0.416% which is ∼ 6 times higher than that a of ZnO solar cell. Detailed characterization techniques including x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were performed on the samples. The Ni-ZnO samples were found to be crystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite lattice structure. The improved efficiency of Ni-ZnO stems from the enhanced absorption and large surface area of the composite.