We report on the growth control of zinc oxide nanorods
to point
out the effect of the ZnO nanorods quality on the power conversion
efficiency (PCE) of transparent conductive oxide (TCO)/ZnO nanorods/dye/spiro-OMeTAD/metal
electrode photovoltaic devices. A promising PCE of 0.61% was measured
for the best nanorods growth conditions. A careful control of all
the growth parameters during the seeds layer deposition and the hydrothermal
synthesis was necessary to reach such a high PCE for this kind of
device. A regular nanorod layer with a flat upper surface was obtained
for ethylenediamine to zinc acetate dihydrate molar ratio equal to
1.74 and a pH of 8.2. The growth was performed at 65 °C for 2
h to avoid zinc oxide brushes deposition on the surface, arising from
zinc hydroxyacetate decomposition during the hydrothermal treatment.
The effect of ZnO nanorods length (ranging from 1 to 3 μm) on
solar cell efficiency was tested. Although the UV–vis absorption
increases when the nanorods length increases, the best photovoltaic
parameters were measured for the shortest nanorods length studied
(1 μm).
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