Composite CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones: Efficient materials for photovoltaic and sensing applications

• Published in: Ceramics international Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 5017 - 5024
• Main Authors: Umar, Ahmad, Akhtar, M.S., Al-Assiri, M.S., Al-Salami, A.E., Kim, S.H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2018
• Subjects: CdO-ZnO; Environmental degradation; Microstructures; Nanocomposites; Powder processing; CdO-ZnO; Powder processing; Microstructures; Nanocomposites; Environmental degradation
• ISSN: 0272-8842; 1873-3956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2017.12.098

Herein, we report a hydrothermal process to synthesize well-defined and crystalline composite CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones and their efficient utilizations as electrode materials to fabricate photovoltaic and sensor devices. The synthesized material was characterized in detail using several techniques which confirmed its hexagonal nanocones-shaped morphologies with an average diameter of ~ 60–80nm, well-crystallinity and purity. The sensing behavior of synthesized CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones were examined by investigating the I-V characteristics of various nitroaniline concentrations in phosphate buffer solution (PBS). The synthesized CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones electrode showed a rapid response with high sensitivity of ~ 129.82μAmM−1cm−2 toward the nitroaniline chemical. As a photoanode, the fabricated dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) attained reasonable overall conversion efficiency of ~ 2.55% with high open circuit voltage (VOC) of ~ 0.810V and fill factor (FF) of 0.64. The high VOC and FF could be attributed to the high series resistance, fast recombination rate and large charge transfer resistance of DSSC.