Published in

SpringerOpen, Nanoscale Research Letters, 1(9), 2014

DOI: 10.1186/1556-276x-9-183

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Novel ZnO microflowers on nanorod arrays: local dissolution-driven growth and enhanced light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells

Journal article published in 2014 by Hao Lu, Kaimo Deng, Zhiwei Shi, Qiong Liu, Guobin Zhu, Hongtao Fan, Liang Li
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract ZnO nanostructures were manipulated, via a low-temperature solution process, from pure nanorod arrays to complex nanostructures of microflowers on nanorod arrays with adjusted quantities of flowers. We proposed the mechanism of local dissolution-driven growth to rationally discuss the novel growth process. These nanostructures were used as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. Compared to pure nanorod arrays, the nanorod array-microflower hierarchical structures improved the power conversion efficiency from 0.41% to 0.92%, corresponding to a 124% efficiency increase. The enhancement of the efficiency was mainly ascribed to the synergistic effect of the enhanced surface area for higher dye loading and the improved light harvesting from efficient light scattering. Present results provide a promising route to improve the capability of light-harvesting for ZnO nanorod array-based DSSCs.