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Facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a solid state reaction for high performance plastic dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

We report the facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a one-step solid state reaction at room temperature and their application as the photoanode in plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). ZnO nanoparticles were prepared utilizing zinc acetate dihydrate and sodium hydroxide with a short grinding time and without a sintering process. The as-prepared samples with the polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained ZnO nanoparticles exhibited high crystallinity even without a high temperature sintering treatment during the preparation process. The effects of compression post-treatment on the photovoltaic performance of DSCs were also investigated using intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS), incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicate that the improvement of power conversion efficiency after compression post-treatment of ZnO photoelectrode can be attributed to its high photoelectron collection efficiency and effective electron transport. Under the optimized conditions, a full plastic D149-sensitized ZnO solar cell measured under illumination of 100 mW·cm−2 (AM 1.5G) presents an energy conversion efficiency of 3.76% with open-circuit voltage of 0.688 V, short-circuit current density of 8.55 mA·cm−2, and fill factor of 0.64. These results demonstrate that the one-step solid state reaction is a convenient and effective method for the synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals for use in plastic DSCs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xiong Yin, Bin Wang, Meng He & Tao He

  2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Bin Wang

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  1. Xiong Yin
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  2. Bin Wang
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  3. Meng He
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  4. Tao He
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Correspondence to Xiong Yin or Tao He.

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Yin, X., Wang, B., He, M. et al. Facile synthesis of ZnO nanocrystals via a solid state reaction for high performance plastic dye-sensitized solar cells. Nano Res. 5, 1–10 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0178-X

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0178-X

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