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Dye-sensitized solar cells using ZnO nanotips and Ga-doped ZnO films

Hanhong Chen1, Aurelien Du Pasquier2, Gaurav Saraf1, Jian Zhong1 and Yicheng Lu1

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Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) transparent conducting films and well-aligned ZnO nanotips were sequentially grown on a glass substrate using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The morphology control of ZnO from dense films to nanotips was realized through temperature-modulated growth. The ZnO nanotips/GZO structure was sensitized with dye N719 to form photoelectrochemical cells. It is found that the power conversion efficiency linearly increases with the length of ZnO nanotips. For the 1.0 cm2 dye-sensitized solar cell built from 4.8 µm ZnO nanotips, a peak incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency of 79% (at ~530 nm) and a power conversion efficiency of 0.77% under the illumination of one sun-simulated sunlight were achieved. UV light harvesting directly by ZnO was observed. The IV characteristics of the cells were analyzed using a one-diode equivalent circuit model.


PACS

84.60.Jt Photoelectric conversion: solar cells and arrays

84.60.Bk Performance characteristics of energy conversion systems; figure of merit

68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology

81.15.Gh Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced CVD, MOCVD, etc.)

68.55.A- Nucleation and growth

Subjects

Electronics and devices

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Dates

Issue 4 (April 2008)

Received 17 August 2007, in final form 23 January 2008

Published 26 February 2008



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