Enhancement mechanism of photovoltaic performance for ZnO/CdS heterostructure photoelectrodes via post-annealing treatment

High-density and vertically-aligned ZnO nanorods (ZNRs) were used as photoelectrodes to assemble the CdS quantum dots sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). In comparison with N (as-deposition) solar cell, an up to 143% enhancement in energy conversion efficiency was achieved for A4 (annealing temperature: 400 °C) solar cell under the white light illumination intensity of 100 mW/cm2.