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Nano Research 2012, 5(1): 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0178-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 04 November 2011

Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanocrystals via a Solid State Reaction for High Performance Plastic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Show Author's Information Xiong Yin1( ),  Bin Wang1,2,  Meng He1,  Tao He1( )
Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology of the Chinese Academy of SciencesNational Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyBeijing100190China
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100049China
Keywords:
solid state reaction, zinc oxide, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Flexible dye-sensitized solar cells, low temperature fabrication, intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy
Cite this article:
Yin X, Wang B, He M, et al. Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanocrystals via a Solid State Reaction for High Performance Plastic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. Nano Research, 2012, 5(1): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0178-x
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Abstract Full text About this article

We report the facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a one-step solid state reaction at room temperature and their application as the photoanode in plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). ZnO nanoparticles were prepared utilizing zinc acetate dihydrate and sodium hydroxide with a short grinding time and without a sintering process. The as-prepared samples with the polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained ZnO nanoparticles exhibited high crystallinity even without a high temperature sintering treatment during the preparation process. The effects of compression post-treatment on the photovoltaic performance of DSCs were also investigated using intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS), incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicate that the improvement of power conversion efficiency after compression post-treatment of ZnO photoelectrode can be attributed to its high photoelectron collection efficiency and effective electron transport. Under the optimized conditions, a full plastic D149-sensitized ZnO solar cell measured under illumination of 100 mW·cm−2 (AM 1.5G) presents an energy conversion efficiency of 3.76% with open-circuit voltage of 0.688 V, short-circuit current density of 8.55 mA·cm−2, and fill factor of 0.64. These results demonstrate that the one-step solid state reaction is a convenient and effective method for the synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals for use in plastic DSCs.


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About this article

Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanocrystals via a Solid State Reaction for High Performance Plastic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Show Author's information Xiong Yin1( ), Bin Wang1,2, Meng He1, Tao He1( )
Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology of the Chinese Academy of SciencesNational Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyBeijing100190China
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100049China

Abstract

We report the facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a one-step solid state reaction at room temperature and their application as the photoanode in plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). ZnO nanoparticles were prepared utilizing zinc acetate dihydrate and sodium hydroxide with a short grinding time and without a sintering process. The as-prepared samples with the polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained ZnO nanoparticles exhibited high crystallinity even without a high temperature sintering treatment during the preparation process. The effects of compression post-treatment on the photovoltaic performance of DSCs were also investigated using intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS), incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicate that the improvement of power conversion efficiency after compression post-treatment of ZnO photoelectrode can be attributed to its high photoelectron collection efficiency and effective electron transport. Under the optimized conditions, a full plastic D149-sensitized ZnO solar cell measured under illumination of 100 mW·cm−2 (AM 1.5G) presents an energy conversion efficiency of 3.76% with open-circuit voltage of 0.688 V, short-circuit current density of 8.55 mA·cm−2, and fill factor of 0.64. These results demonstrate that the one-step solid state reaction is a convenient and effective method for the synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals for use in plastic DSCs.

Keywords: solid state reaction, zinc oxide, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Flexible dye-sensitized solar cells, low temperature fabrication, intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 01 September 2011
Revised: 07 October 2011
Accepted: 08 October 2011
Published: 04 November 2011
Issue date: January 2012

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2010DFA64680), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51043010 and No. 21103032), and the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for financial support.

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