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Growth of ZnO nanorods and nanosheets by electrodeposition and their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

An electrochemical deposition process was used to synthesize zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod and nanosheet structures on indium tin oxide substrate, which could tailored by a simple chemical route without templates and capping agents. The DSSCs based on three-dimensional (3D) ZnO nanosheet network structures showed more superior photoelectrochemical performance than that based on one-dimensional ZnO nanorods. The conversion efficiency of 1.59 % achieved by the DSSCs based on 3D ZnO nanosheet network structures. The improvement can be attributed to the enhanced dye loading, which is caused by the enlargement of internal surface area within the nanostructure photoelectrode. Furthermore, the polarity effects play a significant role on the photo-conversion efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai province (2013-Z-924Q and 2013-Z-901), and Chunhui Project of the Ministry of Education (Z2012109 and Z2012110).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Life Science, Qinghai University for Nationalities, Xining, 810007, China

    Yu-Long Xie, Ping Song & Shu-Qing Hu

  2. College of Physics and Electronic Information Engineering, Qinghai University for Nationalities, Xining, 810007, China

    Jing Yuan

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  1. Yu-Long Xie
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Xie, YL., Yuan, J., Song, P. et al. Growth of ZnO nanorods and nanosheets by electrodeposition and their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 26, 3868–3873 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-015-2913-7

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