Issue 10, 2016

Realizing omnidirectional light harvesting by employing hierarchical architecture for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

To improve the omnidirectional light-harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), here we present a dandelion-like structure composed of ZnO hemispherical shells and nanorods. Uniformly distributed hemispherical shells effectively suppress the reflection over the broadband region at incident angles up to 60°, greatly improving the optical absorption of the DSSCs. In addition, modulating the length of the ZnO nanorods controls the omnidirectional characteristics of DSSCs. This phenomenon is attributed to the degree of periodicity of the ZnO dandelion-like structures. Cells with shorter rods exhibit a high degree of periodicity, thus the conversion efficiencies of the cells show specific angle-independent features. On the other hand, the cells with longer lengths reveal angle-dependent photovoltaic performance. Along with the simulation, the cells with dandelion-like ZnO structures can couple incident photons efficiently to achieve excellent broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting performances experimentally, and the DSSCs enhanced the conversion efficiency by 48% at large incident angles. All these findings not only provide further insight into the light-trapping mechanism in these complex three-dimensional nanostructures but also offer efficient omnidirectional and broadband nanostructured photovoltaics for advanced applications.

Graphical abstract: Realizing omnidirectional light harvesting by employing hierarchical architecture for dye sensitized solar cells

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 ኖቬም 2015
Accepted
26 ጃንዩ 2016
First published
01 ፌብሩ 2016

Nanoscale, 2016,8, 5478-5487

Realizing omnidirectional light harvesting by employing hierarchical architecture for dye sensitized solar cells

M. Hsieh, F. Lai, W. Chen, M. Hsieh, H. Hu, P. Yu, H. Kuo and S. Kuo, Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 5478 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR07948A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements