Hot-compress: A new postdeposition treatment for ZnO-based flexible dye-sensitized solar cells

• A new postdeposition treatment named hot-compress is introduced.
• Hot-compression gives homogeneous compact layer ZnO photoanode.
• I-V and EIS analysis data confirms the efficacy of this method.
• Charge transport resistance was reduced by the application of hot-compression.

This article introduces a new postdeposition treatment named hot-compress for flexible zinc oxide–base dye-sensitized solar cells. This postdeposition treatment includes the application of compression pressure at an elevated temperature. The optimum compression pressure of 130 Ma at an optimum compression temperature of 70 °C heating gives better photovoltaic performance compared to the conventional cells. The aptness of this method was confirmed by investigating scanning electron microscopy image, X-ray diffraction, current-voltage and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis of the prepared cells. Proper heating during compression lowers the charge transport resistance, longer the electron lifetime of the device. As a result, the overall power conversion efficiency of the device was improved about 45% compared to the conventional room temperature compressed cell.

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