Enhanced photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cell based on ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO/graphene nanocomposites

Abstract

For clean, inexpensive, and renewable power source, dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has attracted more attention in recent decades. DSSC faces various challenges that lead scientists to further research. In this study, the efficiency of DSSC was improved through the development of a new ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO/graphene nanocomposite as a photoanode electrode and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), PEDOT/multi wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT), and Pt as a counter electrode. Synthesized samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, brunauer emmett teller (BET)-barrett joyner halenda (BJH), and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. Various DSSC with different photoanode and counter electrode were fabricated in this study. Results showed that graphene has much impact on the performance of DSSC. ZnO/graphene and Pt-based solar cell showed an open circuit voltage of 0.78 V and the fill factor 0.75 and 11.53 conversion efficiency under the one sunlight irradiation. For the ZnO/graphene and PEDOT/MWCNT case, open circuit voltage of 0.65 V and the fill factor 0.83 and 5.542 conversion efficiency was measured.