Chemical synthesis of ZnO hexagonal thin nanodisks and dye-sensitized solar cell performance

Well defined highly monodispersed single crystalline ZnO hexagonal thin nanodisks have been synthesized by a wet chemical route. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid is used as an organic ligand in the chemical synthesis. Ultraviolet near band edge emission is predominant over the defect level emission in these ZnO nanodisks. The ZnO nanodisks have an average diameter of 150 nm and thickness of 40 nm. A dye-sensitized solar cell is fabricated using ZnO nanodisks by spray pyrolysis deposition and it exhibits an efficiency of 2.63% with the ruthenium sensitizer N719 dye. (C) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)