Comparison of UV Irradiation and Sintering on Mesoporous Spongelike ZnO Films Prepared from PS-b-P4VP Templated Sol–Gel Synthesis

Abstract

Mesoporous ZnO films with large surface-area-to-volume ratio show great promise in multiple applications, among which solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSSCs) have attracted great attention in the field of photovoltaics. An appropriate mesopore size in the nanostructured ZnO films significantly plays an indispensable role in improving the device efficiency that resulted from an efficient penetration of dye molecules and solid hole transport material. In the present work, mesoporous spongelike ZnO films are prepared using sol–gel synthesis templated by a diblock copolymer polystyrene-block-poly­(4-vinylpyridine). Two different template removal techniques, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and high-temperature sintering, are used to compare their respective impact on the pore sizes of the final ZnO thin films. Both the surface morphology and the inner morphology show that mesopores obtained via UV irradiation are smaller as compared to their sintered counterparts. Moreover, increasing the template-to-ZnO precursor ratio is found to further enlarge present mesopores. Accordingly, a strong correlation between the pore sizes of sol–gel synthesized ZnO films and photovoltaic performance of fabricated ssDSSCs is demonstrated. In contrast with the devices fabricated from the UV-irradiated ZnO films, those obtained from sintered samples show >2 times higher efficiency.

Perovskite-Based Tandem/Multi-junction Solar Cells

“…Also, due to the advantages of zinc oxide as it has a wide gap with high electron mobility due to its advantages. It is widely used as a hole blocking and electron transport layer through photovoltaic devices such as hybrid, dye-sensitized, organic solar cells, and PSCs [58][59][60]. They used zinc oxide with a thickness of 100 nm instead of high-temperature-processed titanium dioxide (TiO2).…”

Morphology Transformation Pathway of Block Copolymer‐Directed Cooperative Self‐Assembly of ZnO Hybrid Films Monitored In Situ during Slot‐Die Coating

“…[19] Apart from the components themselves, the solvent affinity, precursor cross-linking, solvent evaporation rate, and substrate wettability also have a straightforward impact on the interfacial area and polymer chain stretching. [20,21] Such complexity often leads to the formation of kinetically frozen nanostructures, deviating from the equilibrium state. Consequently, an additional post-treatment step (mainly through solvent vapor or thermal annealing) is always essential to impart sufficient mobility to the polymer chains, yielding a further structural arrangement, and ultimately achieving high periodicity of the nanostructure.…”

ZnO Nanorods: An Advanced Cathode Buffer Layer for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Because of its wide band gap semiconductor with high electron mobility, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been widely used as an electron transport and hole blocking layer for emerging photovoltaic devices such as dye-sensitized, organic, hybrid solar cells and PSCs. , ZnO has advantages of interfacial engineering as CBLs because of the outstanding stability of the material and charge carrier extraction efficiency. − ZnO as CBLs in polymer and organic solar cells with regard of the impacts of nanostructures, morphology, doping, surface modification, and composition/hybrids has been applied. − In addition, the morphology effects of ZnO as CBLs on solar cell photovoltaic performance have been studied . The use of ZnO nanorod (NR) morphology is preferred to design photovoltaic device architectures with an ordered, interpenetrating network, thereby reducing electrical losses and increasing the effective active area of the solar cell .…”

“…Because of its wide band gap semiconductor with high electron mobility, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been widely used as an electron transport and hole blocking layer for emerging photovoltaic devices such as dye-sensitized, organic, hybrid solar cells and PSCs. 25,26 ZnO has advantages of interfacial engineering as CBLs because of the outstanding stability of the material and charge carrier extraction efficiency. 27−29 ZnO as CBLs in polymer and organic solar cells with regard of the impacts of nanostructures, morphology, doping, surface modification, and composition/hybrids has been applied.…”