Photovoltaic performance of ZnO nanosheets solar cell sensitized with beta-substituted porphyrin

Abstract

The photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was fabricated using two-dimensional ZnO nanosheets (2D ZnO NSs) sensitized with beta-substituted porphyrins photosensitizer, and its photovoltaic performance in solid-state DSSC with TiO2 nanotubes (TiO2 TNs) modified poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) polymer electrolyte was studied. The ZnO NSs were synthesized through hydrothermal method and were characterized through high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), diffused reflectance spectra (DRS), photoluminescence spectra (PL), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The crystallinity of the polymer electrolytes was investigated using X-ray diffraction analysis. The photovoltaic performance of the beta-substituted porphyrins sensitized solar cells was evaluated under standard AM1.5G simulated illumination (100mWcm(2)). The efficiency of energy conversion from solar to electrical due to 2D ZnO NSs based DSSCs is 0.13, which is about 1.6 times higher than that of the control DSSC using ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) as photoanode (0.08), when TiO2 NTs fillers modified PEO electrolyte was incorporated in the DSSCs. The current-voltage (I - V) and photocurrent-time (I - T) curves proved stable with effective collection of electrons, when the 2D ZnO nanostructured photoanode was introduced in the solid-state DSSC. © 2011 Arumugam Mahesh.