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Chemical vapor treatment of zinc oxide photoelectrodes for efficiency enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

ZnO photoelectrodes were successfully treated using hydrochloric vapor. The vapor was generated from hydrochloric acid solution with sonication assistance. The morphology showed a formation of plate-like structures after the vapor treatment, resulting in light scattering which was observed in terms of increased reflectance compared with the non-treated photoelectrodes. A dye-sensitized solar cell fabricated with the treated photoelectrodes exhibited an enhanced power conversion efficiency of 3.00% in comparison to the non-treated photoelectrodes base of 2.35%. The enhanced power conversion efficiency was observed in direct relation to the increased short-circuit current density. The increased short-circuit current density is due to the achieved light scattering in the photoelectrodes. Moreover, an extended open-circuit voltage was observed due to reduced electron recombination in the device. Therefore, a chemical vapor treatment of ZnO photoelectrodes via hydrochloric acid resulted in a successful scattering layer formation and a reduced recombination process for power conversion efficiency enhancement of ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute (KURDI), Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science, Kasetsart University Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Nakhon Pathom, 73140, Thailand

    Sasimonton Moungsrijun, Supphadate Sujinnapram & Sutthipoj Sutthana

  2. Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Supab Choopun

  3. Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP Center), CHE, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    Supab Choopun

  4. Center of Advanced Materials for Printed Electronics and Sensors, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Supab Choopun

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  1. Sasimonton Moungsrijun
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  2. Supphadate Sujinnapram
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  3. Supab Choopun
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  4. Sutthipoj Sutthana
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Correspondence to Sutthipoj Sutthana.

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Moungsrijun, S., Sujinnapram, S., Choopun, S. et al. Chemical vapor treatment of zinc oxide photoelectrodes for efficiency enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cells. Monatsh Chem 148, 1191–1196 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-017-1952-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-017-1952-6

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