CuInS₂/N3 Co‐Sensitized ZnO Nanorods with Improved Photovoltaic Properties for Solar Cells

Abstract

Uniform core/shell nanostructure of ZnO/CuInS 2 nanorods was synthesized using ZnO nanorod arrays as reactive templates via solution reaction. The N3 dye was sequentially assembled on the ZnO/CuInS 2 arrays to construct a cascading co-sensitized nanomaterial as photoanode of solar cell. Formation process of CuInS 2 /ZnO nanostructure and the mechanism of CuInS 2 and N3 co-sensitization were discussed. The I-V characteristic measurement indicates an enhanced efficiency by 24.8% as compared to single sensitized by N3 due to abundant light harvesting, higher chemical instability of ZnO/CuInS 2 in acid dye, fast injection and transmission velocity, and the slowdown recombination of photo-excited electrons, simultaneously.(2) Preparation of ZnO Nanorod Arrays The preparation of ZnO nanorod arrays related to substrate pretreatment and hydrothermal deposition, similar to descrip-J. Heo-contributing editor Manuscript No. 30072.

Fabrication of ETA cells based on ZnO/CuInS2core/shell heterostructure

“…It can be concluded that the CuInS 2 shell could enlarge the photoresponse spectrum to visible region, and the photoabsorption of the ZnO/CuInS 2 core/shell nanoarray was enhanced, which is related to the narrow energy band (bulk E g ¼ 1?53 eV) as well as the high optical absorption coefficient (10 5 cm 21 ) of CuInS 2 . 15,[18][19][20][21] With deposited CuSCN, the transmittance of as obtained heterostructure was not changed heavily, mainly due to the transparence of CuSCN in the visible light spectrum range. 11 Fig .…”

“…As we can see from curve a, the cathodic threshold potential for the reduction of Cu 2þ to Cu þ ions is about 2100 mV when using ZnO/CuInS 2 heterostructure as working electrode, and a shift of the g reduction potential to a more negative range as well as a decrease in the cathode reaction current density could be observed. Owing to the stepwise band gap between ZnO and CuInS 2 , described as in our previous work, 15 the transport of electrons from ZnO to CuInS 2 would be blocked to some degree, and it would make it harder for Cu 2þ to gain electrons from the surface of ZnO/CuInS 2 heterostructure, which is the key step (Cu 2þ þ e 2 RCu þ , Cu þ þ SCN 2 RCuSCNQ) for the deposition of CuSCN into the heterostructured nanorods array. Thus, the electrodeposition speed of CuSCN would be decreased, corresponding to the variation tendency of the curves shown as Fig.…”

Role of co-sensitization in dye-sensitized and quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

“…But still this approach has to be improved due to the hydrophilic nature of TiO 2 nanotubes. Co-sensitization by hybrid on ZnO photoanode was found to be improving efficiency through CuInS 2 /N3 combination [144]. Interestingly, hierarchical structure of ZnO/ZnS Review SN Applied Sciences (2019) 1:186 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-018-0054-3…”

Delineating the enhanced efficiency of carbon nanomaterials including the hierarchical architecture of the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells

“…In the past, photoanodes were improvised using nano-architectures, [3][4][5] light scattering layer, 6,7 composite with another semiconductor [8][9][10] or graphene, 11,12 doping, [13][14][15] interfacial engineering 16,17 and TiCl 4 post-treatment methods. 18,19 For instance, various nanoforms of ZnO was used as cascading co-sensitized nanomaterial which enhanced the efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells 20,21 and Vanadium doped TiO 2 is used to fabricate the working electrode in a DSSCs by layer-by-layer method was explored a remarkable performance compared to bare TiO 2 particles 22 .…”