Microwave assisted synthesis of zinc stannate nanocubes for dye sensitized solar cell application

• We have synthesized ZS nanocubes by simple and economic microwave assisted route.
• The paste was prepared without binding agent and coated on the ITO plate.
• Three low cost organic dyes were used as sensitizers for ZS electrode.
• We have fabricated DSSCs using ZS nanocubes and their performances were reported.

The ternary complex oxide Zn2SnO4 (ZS) has become more essential because of its photonic energy conversion, tremendous stability and higher electron mobility compared to the binary counterparts. The ZS nanocubes were prepared by simple microwave assisted route. The cubic spinel structured ZS was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and micro-Raman techniques. Scanning electron micrograph revealed the formation of nanocubes with size of ∼90 nm. The Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using the synthesized ZS as photoanode and low cost organic dyes such as Rose Bengal (RB), Eosin Yellow (EY) and Fluorescein sodium salt (FY) as sensitizers to study their light conversion efficiencies. The DSSCs exhibited power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.64%, 0.05% and 0.02% for RB, EY and FY sensitized films, respectively.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide