Material characteristics and electrochemical performance of Sn-doped ZnO spherical-particle photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2013.07.199
• Publication Date: 2013-08-27T05:46:07Z
• Authors: Haohao Wang; Ripon Bhattacharjee; I-Ming Hung; Langkai Li; Renjie Zeng
• Keywords: Particle (ecology)

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Sn element on the characteristics and electrochemical properties of ZnO spherical-particle used as dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) photoanode. Spherical nanoparticles were synthesized via a polyol mediated precipitation method and four concentrations of Sn–Zn = 0, 3, 4, and 5 wt.% of photoelectrodes were prepared. Their structures, morphologies, photovoltaic performances and electrochemical properties were studied through XRD, SEM, TEM, J–V , IPCE and EIS. It was observed that the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells increased with the addition of Sn element and the SZO4 (Sn–Zn = 4 wt.%) based DSSC had the highest power energy conversion efficiency of 0.80%, which is greatly increased compared to that of the DSSC based on ZnO (0.28%).