Title: Highly crystalline hydrothermal ZnO nanowires as photoanodes in DSCs

Authors: Ariadna Fernández; Jiandong Fan; Andreu Cabot

Addresses: Department d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain ' Catalonia Institute for Energy Research – IREC, Sant Adrià del Besos, Barcelona 08930, Spain ' Catalonia Institute for Energy Research – IREC, Sant Adrià del Besos, 08930 Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats – ICREA, Barcelona 08010, Spain

Abstract: Vertically aligned ZnO nanowires (NWs) were prepared inside an autoclave by a hydrothermal procedure at temperatures above 100°C (HP). The effects of synthesis temperature and time on the morphology of ZnO NWs were carefully studied. The performance of HP ZnO NWs was compared with that of ZnO NWs grown by a conventional ambient pressure hydrothermal method at temperatures below 100°C (LP) as photoanodes in dye-sensitised solar cells (DSCs). HP ZnO NWs provided DSCs with more than two-fold higher power conversion efficiencies than LP ZnO NWs. Improved efficiencies are associated to the larger higher aspect ratio and improved crystallinity of HP ZnO NWs.

Keywords: ZnO nanowires; hydrothermal nanowires; zinc oxide; photovoltaics; dye-sensitised solar cells; nanotechnology; photoanodes; DSCs; power conversion; crystallinity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2014.063785

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2014 Vol.11 No.9/10/11, pp.747 - 757

Published online: 14 Jan 2015 *

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