Enhanced dye sensitized solar cell performance with high surface area thin ZnO film and PEDOT:PSS

ZnO coated meso-porous nanocrystalline TiO2 films were prepared and the corresponding photoelectrodes were used in the fabrication of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) to investigate its influence along with platinum (Pt), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene: poly (4-styrene sulfonate)) [PEDOT:PSS] counter electrodes on incident-photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) and power conversion performance (η). DSSCs fabricated based on the ZnO coated photoeletrodes exhibit an IPCE of 71% with η-value of 7.51 ± 0.06% [short-circuit current density (JSC) = 17.93 ± 0.07 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage (VOC) = 0.66 ± 0.01 V, fill factor (FF) = 0.62 ± 0.01] under Air Mass 1.5 sunlight, higher as compared to the reference DSSCs fabricated under similar conditions for ZnO free photoelectrodes, which exhibited η-value of 6.11 ± 0.02% (JSC = 15.04 ± 0.04 mA/cm2, VOC = 0.68 ± 0.01 V, FF = 0.60 ± 0.01) with platinum decorated counter electrodes. The higher power conversion efficiency of DSSCs fabricated based on TiO2/ZnO electrode could be probably more competitive electron collection process due to sharper ZnO nanosoar paths.