Enhancement of Energy Conversion Efficiency for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Using Zinc Oxide Photoanode

Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is a third generation solar cell that is well known for its low cost, simple fabrication process and promised reasonable energy conversion efficiency. Basic structure of DSSC is composed of photoanode, dye sensitizer, electrolyte that is sandwiched together in between two transparent conductive oxide (TCO) glasses. Each of the components in the DSSC contributes important role that affect the energy conversion efficiency. In this research, the commonly used titanium dioxide (TiO₂) photoanode has previously reported to have high recombination rate and low electron mobility which caused efficiency loss had been compared with the zinc oxide (ZnO) photoanode with high electron mobility (155 cm²V^-1s^-1). Both of these photoanodes had been deposited through doctor blade technique. The electrical performance of the laboratory based DSSCs were tested using solar cell simulator and demonstrated that ZnO is a better photoanode compared to TiO₂ with the energy conversion efficiency of 0.34% and 0.29% respectively. Nanorods shape morphology was observed in ZnO photoanode with average particle size of 41.60 nm and average crystallite size of 19.13 nm. This research proved that the energy conversion efficiency of conventional TiO₂ based photoanode can be improved using ZnO material. (paper)