Flower-like Nanostructured ZnO for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Applications

Author

Rong Zhang ; Kerra, L.L. ; Edelmann, Richard E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Paper & Chem. Eng., Miami Univ., Oxford, OH

Volume

1

fYear

2006

fDate

38838

Firstpage

267

Lastpage

270

Abstract

We are presenting porous-structured ZnO films grown by two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD), which has the potential to be used as a porous electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). ZnS films were deposited on corning glass substrates by a stirred aqueous solution. Subsequent oxidization of ZnS films gave rise to ZnO thin films. The ZnO films exhibited a strong (002) diffractive peak, which indicates that the ZnO crystals were highly orientated along the c-axis. The highly oriented structure of the ZnO films was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis, which revealed vertical flower-like ZnO crystals on the substrates. Raman spectra for flower-like porous-structured ZnO film showed three feature peaks at 345 cm^-1, 570 cm^-1 and 1100 cm^-1, which were also found in pure bulk ZnO powder reference samples as well. The bandgap of ZnO film was determined to be 3.0 eV

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; Raman spectra; chemical vapour deposition; dyes; nanostructured materials; nanotechnology; porous semiconductors; scanning electron microscopy; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; 1100 cm^-1; 345 cm^-1; 570 cm^-1; Raman spectra; ZnO; chemical bath deposition; dye-sensitized solar cell; flower-like nanostructured films; glass substrates; porous electrode; porous-structured films; scanning electron microscopy; stirred aqueous solution; Chemicals; Crystals; Decision support systems; Electrodes; Glass; Photovoltaic cells; Scanning electron microscopy; Substrates; Zinc compounds; Zinc oxide; ZnO thin films; chemical bath deposition; dye-sensitized solar cells; porous-structured;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.2006.279442

Filename

4059615