Title: Photoelectrochemical property study of the urchin-like Zn/ZnO/TiO2 in dye-sensitised solar cells

Authors: Tian Zhao; Fei Wang; Yiqing Chen; Likun Ma; Chao Chen; Chao Liu

Addresses: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China ' School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China ' School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China ' School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China ' School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China ' School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tunxi Rd., Hefei City, Anhui Province, 230009, China

Abstract: A novel urchin-like Zn/ZnO/TiO2 hierarchical structure directly growing on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass is prepared by a simple sintering process, and the dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) based on such a structure present desirable photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. The research confirms that the DSSCs based on an urchin-like Zn/ZnO structure in which the ZnO nanowires are coated with TiO2 shell can enhance the photovoltaic performance, attributed to the fact that the core-shell structure can modify the energy band levels, suppress charge recombination and prolong the electron lifetime. Comparison of TiO2 shell with different thickness, the highest conversion efficiency of the cells can reach about 0.82%. The origin of the striking difference in performance could be due to the different shell thickness, which is analysed and discussed in the paper. The study confirms that such a novel photoanode structure can retard the recombination process and increase the conversion efficiency.

Keywords: photoelectrochemical study; urchin-like photoanodes; zinc; zinc oxide; titania; atom layer deposition; ALD; core-shell structure; dye-sensitised solar cells; DSSCs; solar energy; solar power; ZnO nanowires; TiO2; fluorine-doped tin oxide; FTO glass; nanotechnology; energy band levels; electron lifetime; photovoltaic performance; shell thickness; conversion efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2015.071900

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2015 Vol.11 No.3/4, pp.122 - 137

Received: 12 Jun 2014
Accepted: 23 Mar 2015

Published online: 23 Sep 2015 *

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