Facile construction of nanofibrous ZnO photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Abstract

A facile method to prepare nanofibrous ZnO photoelectrodes with tunable thicknesses by electrospinning is reported. A “self-relaxation layer” is formed spontaneously between ZnO nanofibers and fluorine-doped SnO 2 (FTO) substrate, which facilitates the release of interfacial tensile stress during calcination, resulting in good adhesion of ZnO film to FTO substrate. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on the nanofibrous ZnO photoelectrodes are fabricated and an energy conversion efficiency of 3.02% is achieved under irradiation of AM 1.5 simulated sunlight with a power density of 100 mW cm −2, which shows good promise of electrospun nanofibrous ZnO as the photoelectrode in DSSCs

Effect of Al-doping on the structure and optical properties of electrospun zinc oxide nanofiber films

“…AZO-PVAc composite nanofibers were collected on a FTO glass substrate or on a piece of flat aluminum foil flattened on a laboratory jack. The experimental configuration was similar to that described in previous researches [16][17][18][19][20][23][24][25].…”

“…Although 1D AZO has been fabricated using various techniques such as hydrothermal synthesis [3,12], electrospinning [16][17][18][19][20] and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [21,22], the electrospinning technique has proved to be one of the simplest, most versatile, and cost-effective approaches to the fabrication of 1D ZnO nanofibers. The incorporation of Al into ZnO nanofibers has been reported in the literature, but impurity incorporation and their influence on structural, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of ZnO nanostructures is still a contentious matter.…”

TiO2 films with rich bulk oxygen vacancies prepared by electrospinning for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…As a simple and cost-effective way to prepare semiconductor oxides with 1D nanostructure, electrospinning technique has attracted extensive interest in various areas, including dyesensitized solar cells [12], gas sensor [13], photo-catalysis [14], lithium-ion batteries [15], and transparent conductive films [16]. Compared with other methods, electrospinning possesses many advantages, such as large-area preparation, on both conductive and insulating substrates, and cost-effective.…”

EPD-deposited ZnO thin films: a review

“…ZnO photoanodes have been developed and studied as promising alternatives to the most common TiO 2 ones, due to the high electronic mobility of ZnO and to the similar band gap of both materials, ∼3.2 eV for ZnO and ∼3.3 eV for TiO 2 . A great variety of methods have been used for the preparation of these ZnO electrodes [102][103][104][105][106][107]. However they generally involve high temperature annealing processes, which limit the kind of substrates that can be used, e.g.…”