Metal-Free Low-Cost Organic Dye-Sensitized ZnO-Nanorod Photoanode for Solid-State Solar Cell

The synthesis of ZnO nanorods (ZnONRs), by virtue of their anisotropic electronic properties, and their exploitation as photoanode material for low-cost metal-free organic dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) are reported. The ZnO nanostructures were prepared through sol-gel method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The photovoltaic performance of the eosin yellow (eosin-Y) sensitized solar cell employing TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO(2)NPs) modified poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) based solid-state polymer electrolyte was evaluated under simulated standard global AM 1.5G sunlight (100 mW/cm(2)). The solar to electrical energy conversion efficiency (eta) of the ZnONRs based DSSC was 0.89%, which is 2.5 times higher than that of the DSSC fabricated with ZnO nanoparticles (0.35%). This enhancement in the efficiency is attributed to an effective conduction of electrons through the 1D ZnO nanostructures.