Effect of ZnO growth time on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell utilizing TiO2-ZnO core-shell nanograss hetero-structure

Effect of the ZnO growth time on the morphology and optical absorption of TiO2-ZnO core-shell and the performance of TiO2-ZnO core-shell dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) have been investigated. It was found that at the growth time of 12 h, the morphology of the sample is no longer nanograss but changes to nanoparticle. The optical absorption increases with the growth time and then decreases at the growth time of 6 h. The highest efficiency, η of 0.622% was achieved at the growth time of 3 h with the Jsc of 1.89 mA cm−2, Voc of 0.64 V and FF of 0.51.