Seed free and low temperature growth of ZnO nanowires in mesoporous TiO2 film for dye-sensitized solar cells with enhanced photovoltaic performance

Abstract

We report in this paper a cheap and easy method for the preparation of ZnO nanowire/TiO2 nanoparticle hybrid films for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), which is achieved by post-embedding ZnO nanowires in mesoporous TiO2 film via a seed free low-temperature hydrothermal process. The electron transport and recombination properties in the as-fabricated DSCs are studied by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Results indicate that the electron transport, electron lifetime, effective diffusion length and the electron collection efficiency are increased, while the charge recombination is reduced, resulting in the remarkably enhanced power conversion efficiency of 7.46%, higher than 6.09% of standard TiO2 nanoparticle based DSCs. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.