Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Incorporated with TiO2-ZnO Nanoparticles

We demonstrated an improvement in efficiency of Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) decorated with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) through successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). A series of ZnO with different SILAR cycles were synthesized on TiO2 that has been pre-grown on fluorine tin oxide (FTO) glass slides. The performance of DSSCs containing ZnO NPs was significantly affected. The photovoltaic (PV) performance decreased with increasing number of SILAR cycles from two SILAR cycles to four SILAR cycles, the best performance was achieved using the anodes prepared with two SILAR cycles. The best cell shows a conversion efficiency (η) of 0.0064 %. The cell exhibits ~ 2.13 improvement over the performance (0.0030 %) of bare FTO-based device. The related PV performance enhancement mechanism is discussed.