A quasi solid state dye sensitized solar cell based on gelatin/multiwalled carbon nanotube gel electrolyte and ZnO nanorod photoanode

作者：Sharma Shyamalima; Khannam Momina; Dolui Swapan K

来源：Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics , 2016, 27(8): 7864-7875.

DOI：10.1007/s10854-016-4777-x

One-dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have a strong impact on dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a photoanode. Such a nanostructure offers a direct route to the anode for photo-generated electrons resulting from the increased carrier recombination resistance. This manuscript is concerned with the formation of different aspect ratio ZnO nanorod (8-20) by a simple hydrothermal method and the use of such nanorods into the photoanode. The carboxy-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (COOH-MWCNT) immobilized into gelatin hydrogel was taken as the gel electrolyte. At an optimum concentration of 0.2 % MWCNT, the fabricated device shows an open circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.934 V, short circuit current density (J(sc)) of 8.143 mA/cm(2) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.35 % for ZnO nanorods with aspect ratio 20. On the other hand, the conventional ZnO shows only V-oc of 0.743 V, J(sc) of 5.525 mA/cm(2) and PCE of 0.21 % under identical condition. This novel fabrication method can thus be considered as a simple and improved way to well-defined photoanodes for quasi solid state DSSCs.

• 出版日期2016-8