Growth of ZnO nanorods and nanosheets by electrodeposition and their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells

• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-015-2913-7
• Publication Date: 2015-03-10T07:39:06Z
• Authors: Yu-Long Xie; Jing Yuan; Ping Song; Shu-Qing Hu
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy

An electrochemical deposition process was used to synthesize zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod and nanosheet structures on indium tin oxide substrate, which could tailored by a simple chemical route without templates and capping agents. The DSSCs based on three-dimensional (3D) ZnO nanosheet network structures showed more superior photoelectrochemical performance than that based on one-dimensional ZnO nanorods. The conversion efficiency of 1.59 % achieved by the DSSCs based on 3D ZnO nanosheet network structures. The improvement can be attributed to the enhanced dye loading, which is caused by the enlargement of internal surface area within the nanostructure photoelectrode. Furthermore, the polarity effects play a significant role on the photo-conversion efficiency.