Synthesis and Characterization of Zinc Oxide Nano-Particles for Photovoltaic Application

Abstract

The low total conversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells have caused researchers to improve the individual components of the cell. This work aims to produce zinc oxide nanoparticles to help improve absorption and also reduce recombination in the photo anode of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). In this work, zinc oxide nanoparticles were produced using the hydrothermal synthesis technique and the annealing effect was conducted on the prepared samples. The samples prepared were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), thermal analysis (TGA/DSC). The XRD results indicated that hexagonal wurtzite phase were produced with a dominate diffraction peak of (002) at the highest hydrothermal temperature and at the annealing temperature of 500 ℃ for 30 minutes. The SEM results show nearly spherical particles with enhanced agglomeration whiles the EDX results confirmed the presence of zinc and oxygen elements without any impurity. The DRS results show a significant increase in absorption when the samples were annealed. Furthermore, the TGA/DSC results showed the stability of zinc oxide above 400 ℃. This study suggests that the synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles might perform excellently in DSSC photo anode.