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Growth of ZnO nanorods on TiO2 nanoparticles films and their application to the electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

A ZnO nanorods (NRs)/TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) film has been prepared by electrochemical deposition of ZnO NRs growth on P25 TiO2 NPs film surfaces. It was found that ZnO NRs/TiO2 NPs could significantly improve the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells owing to its relatively enhanced light-scattering capability and efficient charge transport efficiency. The overall energy-conversion efficiency (η) of 3.48 % was achieved by the formation of ZnO NRs/TiO2 NPs film, which is 33 % higher than that formed by TiO2 NPs alone (η = 2.62 %). The charge recombination behavior of cells was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectra, and the results showed that ZnO NRs/TiO2 NPs film has the longer electron lifetime than TiO2 NPs alone, which could facilitate the reduction of recombination processes and thus would promote the photocatalysis and solar cell performance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai Province (2013-Z-924Q), and Chunhui Project of the Ministry of Education (Z2012109).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Life Science, Qinghai University for Nationalities, Xining, 810007, China

    Yu-Long Xie, Peng-Cheng Lin, Shu-Qing Hu, Yong-Chang Lu, Lei Li & Hong Wang

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  1. Yu-Long Xie
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  2. Peng-Cheng Lin
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  3. Shu-Qing Hu
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  5. Lei Li
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Correspondence to Yu-Long Xie.

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Xie, YL., Lin, PC., Hu, SQ. et al. Growth of ZnO nanorods on TiO2 nanoparticles films and their application to the electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 25, 2665–2670 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-014-1926-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-014-1926-y

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