Effect of growth solution concentration on the performance of boron doped ZnO dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC)

Abstract

Synthesis parameter plays important role in modifying physical property of metal oxide films which serve as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). This paper reports the synthesis of boron doped ZnO nanostructures via seed mediated growth hydrother-mal technique and their application as photanode in DSSC. The growth process was carried out at various solution concentrations, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 M. The solution contains 1 % wt. dimethyl borate as boron source, hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) surfactant and zinc nitrate (Zn(NO 3 ) 2 ). The samples are crystalline with wurtzite phase. The morphological shape of the samples changes with the growth solu-tion concentration. The optical absorption increases as the concentration increases. However, the band gap does not significantly change with the concentration. The DSSC utilizing the ZnO sample prepared at 0.1 M solution performs the best photovoltaic parameters with the JSC of 0.969 mA cm -2 , FF of 0.48 and η of 0.222%, respectively since it shows the highest absorption and lowest photoluminescence in visible region.