Effect of Ageing in Structural Properties of ZnO Nanoparticles with pH Variation for Application in Solar Cells

Abstract

ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized via novel Sol-gel route. The effects of pH variation as well as ageing were studied. The nanoparticles were synthesized with two different pH levels viz. pH 7 and pH 10. It was found that the size of the nanoparticles increased from 19 to 39.6 nm with increase in pH level from 7 to 10. Further the effect of ageing on the ZnO nanoparticles was studied. It was found that the crystallite size as well as the crystallinity of the nanoparticles increased with ageing. The crystallite size increased from 19 to 32.8 nm for pH 7 and from 39.6 to 42 nm for pH 10 with ageing. The intensity of the XRD peaks increased drastically with ageing primarily due to increase in crystallite size of nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were further characterized using TEM. The particle size obtained by TEM was same as crystallite size obtained by XRD. The synthesized ZnO nanoparticles can be used as a suitable material for application in quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs).