Surface engineering of ZnO nanorod for inverted organic solar cell

Alshanableh, Abdelelah; Tan, Sin Tee; Yap, Chi Chin; Lee, Hock Beng; Oleiwi, Hind Fadhil; Hong, Kai Jeat; Jumali, Mohammad Hafizuddin Hj; Yahaya, Muhammad

doi:10.1016/j.mseb.2018.12.024

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The KOH-treated ZnO nanorods showed the most signicant improvement due to the defect quenching phenomenon provided by KOH. 163 The unique surface structure in the form of the trilaminar ZnO/ZnS/Sb 2 Se 3 nanotube (NTs) arrays was used in conjunction with P3HT, where ZnO was used as a buffer layer and Sb 2 Se 3 as sensitizer. 164 The structure was reported to be able to suppress carrier recombination and increase electron collection efficiency due to better energy level alignment of the trilaminar structure with P3HT, thus giving a rise in PCE of 1.32%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ZnO nanostructured materials for emerging solar cell applications

et al. 2020

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ZnO nanostructured materials for emerging solar cell applications

et al. 2020

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“…Theoretically, the chemical etching of solids involves three major factors: (i) the electrostatic interaction between the solid surface atoms and the ions of etching agents; (ii) the dissociation energy of the etchants; and (iii) the pH dependency. 36 The HCl acid fully dissociates in water, but the etchant ions might coordinate with the surface-terminated atoms on the ZnO nanorods to form some intermediates. Thus, the related chemical reactions about HCl acid etching of the ZnO crystal surface can be expressed as follows:…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling Anisotropic and Pulsating Etching of ZnO Nanorods in Hydrochloric Acid via Correlative Electron Microscopy

Liu

Zhu

et al. 2023

ACS Nano

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Despite much technical progress achieved so far, the exact surface and shape evolution during wet chemical etching is less unraveled, especially in ionically bonded ceramics. Herein, by using in situ liquid cell transmission electron microscopy, a repeated two-stage anisotropic and pulsating periodic etching dynamic is discovered during the pencil shape evolution of a single crystal ZnO nanorod in aqueous hydrochloric acid. Specifically, the nanopencil tip shrinks at a slower rate along [0001̅] than that along the ⟨101̅0⟩ directions, resulting in a sharper ZnO pencil tip. Afterward, rapid tip dissolution happens due to accelerated etching rates along various crystal directions. Concurrently, the vicinal base region of the original nanopencil tip emerges as a new tip followed by the repeated sequence of tip shrinking and removal. The high-index surfaces, such as {101̅m} (m = 0, 1, 2, or 3) and {21̅ 1̅n} (n = 0, 1, 2, or 3), are found to preferentially expose in different ratios. Our 3D electron tomography, convergent beam electron diffraction, middle-angle bright-field STEM, and XPS results indicate the dissociative Cl– species were bound to the Zn-terminated tip surfaces. Furthermore, DFT calculation suggests the preferential Cl– passivation over the {101̅1} and (0001) surfaces of lower energy than others, leading to preferential surface exposures and the oscillatory variation of different facet etching rates. The boosted reactivity due to high-index nanoscale surface exposures is confirmed by comparatively enhanced chemical sensing and CO2 hydrogenation activity. These findings provide an in-depth understanding of anisotropic wet chemical etching of ionic nanocrystals and offer a design strategy for advanced functional materials.

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“…Recent studies have investigated anisotropic monolayers that use various linker strategies to modify the surface of the electrode, ,− coupling to plasmonically active metallic nanowires, short peptides developed by phage display, or conductive interlayers ,− to bias the orientation of PSI. Even perfectly oriented PSI, however, must also be free of traps and electronically coupled to the electrode or else the electron/hole pairs will recombine before they can be extracted. − Thus, an ideal strategy for controlling the orientation of PSI must also modify the electrode–protein interface for optimal alignment between the energy levels of P 700 or F A /F B sites and the work function of the electrode.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fullerenes Enhance Self-Assembly and Electron Injection of Photosystem I in Biophotovoltaic Devices

et al. 2021

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This paper describes the fabrication of microfluidic devices with a focus on controlling the orientation of photosystem I (PSI) complexes, which directly affects the performance of biophotovoltaic devices by maximizing the efficiency of the extraction of electron/hole pairs from the complexes. The surface chemistry of the electrode on which the complexes assemble plays a critical role in their orientation. We compared the degree of orientation on self-assembled monolayers of phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid and a custom peptide on nanostructured gold electrodes. Biophotovoltaic devices fabricated with the C 61 fulleroid exhibit significantly improved performance and reproducibility compared to those utilizing the peptide, yielding a 1.6-fold increase in efficiency. In addition, the C 61 -based devices were more stable under continuous illumination. Our findings show that fulleroids, which are well-known acceptor materials in organic photovoltaic devices, facilitate the extraction of electrons from PSI complexes without sacrificing control over the orientation of the complexes, highlighting this combination of traditional organic semiconductors with biomolecules as a viable approach to coopting natural photosynthetic systems for use in solar cells.

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Surface engineering of ZnO nanorod for inverted organic solar cell

Cited by 5 publications

References 25 publications

ZnO nanostructured materials for emerging solar cell applications

ZnO nanostructured materials for emerging solar cell applications

Unraveling Anisotropic and Pulsating Etching of ZnO Nanorods in Hydrochloric Acid via Correlative Electron Microscopy

Fullerenes Enhance Self-Assembly and Electron Injection of Photosystem I in Biophotovoltaic Devices

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