The different types of ZnO materials on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

Different types of zinc oxide (ZnO) materials such as micro-rods, textured, nanoparticles and nanorods have been synthesized as photoanodes via a simple method for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The relationship between the optical transparency and the device efficiency has been correlated with respect to film thickness. The maximum conversion efficiency is recorded from the device containing slantingly grown ZnO nanorods. Besides, the lower conversion efficiency is obtained from the device with ZnO micro-rods. A plausible schematic diagram is drawn to explain the reason for the higher power conversion in slantingly grown ZnO nanorods over the well-aligned nanorods.

► Different types of zinc oxide materials were synthesized via a simple method. ► The maximum conversion efficiency was recorded with slanting ZnO nanorods. ► The reason for the higher power conversion was explained.