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Enhanced Electron Transport in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Short ZnO Nanotips on A Mirco-textured Metal Anode

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Zhenzhen Yang ,
Tao Xu ,
Ulrich Welp  and
Wai Kwong Kwok
Zhenzhen Yang
Affiliation:
[email protected], Northern Illinois University, Chemistry, Dekalb, Illinois, United States
Tao Xu
Affiliation:
[email protected], Northern Illinois University, Chemistry, Dekalb, Illinois, United States
Ulrich Welp
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University, Chemistry, Dekalb, Illinois, United States
Wai Kwong Kwok
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University, Chemistry, Dekalb, Illinois, United States
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Abstract

Much attention has been directed towards the enhancement of electron transport in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) using one-dimensional nanoarchitectured semiconductors. However, the improvement resulting from these ordered 1-D nanostructured electrodes is often offset or diminished by the deterioration in other device parameters intrinsically associated with the use of these 1-D nanostrucutres, such as the two-sided effects of the length of the nanowires impacting the series resistance and roughness factor. In this work, we mitigate this problem by allocating part of the roughness factor to the collecting anode instead of imparting all the roughness factors onto the semiconductor layer. A microscopically rough Zn microtip array is used as an anode on which ZnO nanotips are grown to serve as the semiconductor component in a DSSC. For the same surface roughness factor, our Zn microtip/ZnO nanotip DSSC exhibits an enhanced fill factor compared to a corresponding planar anode supported ZnO nanowire DSSC. In addition, the open circuit voltage of the Zn-microtip|ZnO-nanotip DSSC is also enhanced due to a favorable band shift at the Zn-ZnO interface, which raises the quasi Fermi level of the semiconductor and consequently enlarges the energy gap between the quasi Fermi level of ZnO and the redox species. The overall improvement demonstrates a new fundamental approach to enhance the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Keywords

nanostructurecore/shellZn
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1211: Symposium R – Advanced Nanostructured Solar Cells , 2009 , 1211-R08-36
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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