Inexpensive organic dyes-sensitized zinc oxide nanoparticles photoanode for solar cells devices

Samy Shaat; Hamdiya Zayed; Hussam Musleh; Nabil Shurrab; Ahmed Issa; Jihad Asad; Naji Al Dahoudi

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.7.025504

15 June 2017 Inexpensive organic dyes-sensitized zinc oxide nanoparticles photoanode for solar cells devices

Samy Shaat, Hamdiya Zayed, Hussam Musleh, Nabil Shurrab, Ahmed Issa, Jihad Asad, Naji Al Dahoudi

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 7, Issue 2, 025504 (June 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.025504

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were synthesized using a hydrothermal route. The prepared ZnO NPs were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), UV–vis spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The XRD patterns confirmed the standard hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO NPs, and the calculated value of the average particle size was 23.34 nm. HR-TEM micrographs of ZnO NPs showed semispherical particle morphologies and their sizes lie between 10 and 40 nm. The estimated average size distribution of ZnO NPs was 21.35 ± 6.01 nm . UV–vis spectrum of ZnO NPs revealed the highest absorption band at 360.5 nm, and the E g was 3.70 ± 0.01 eV . The PL spectrum emission was deconvoluted by eight peaks into two regions [near-ultraviolet (NUV) and visible that caused from the defects]. Two groups of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) thin film devices based on ZnO NPs were sensitized in different concentration solutions of 0.1, 0.32, and 0.5 mM of eosin B (EB) and eosin Y (EY) dyes. The sensitized DSSCs device with 0.32-mM dye of EY displayed higher efficiency and its performance parameters are much better among all other fabricated DSSCs devices. The short current density ( J sc ) increased from 1.59 to 4.97 mA / cm 2 and the V oc enhanced from 0.36 to 0.46 V. The conversion efficiency from light to electricity showed a significant improvement from 0.29% to 0.94%. The transient open circuit photovoltage decay (TOCPVD) was measured to estimate the apparent electron lifetime or response time ( τ n ) or the electron recombination rate ( k

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Samy Shaat, Hamdiya Zayed, Hussam Musleh, Nabil Shurrab, Ahmed Issa, Jihad Asad, and Naji Al Dahoudi "Inexpensive organic dyes-sensitized zinc oxide nanoparticles photoanode for solar cells devices," Journal of Photonics for Energy 7(2), 025504 (15 June 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.025504

Received: 14 March 2017; Accepted: 16 May 2017; Published: 15 June 2017

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