Porous ZnO nanosheet arrays constructed on weaved metal wire for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Porous zinc oxide (ZnO) nanosheet (NS) arrays constructed by connected nanocrystallites were built on weaved metal wire (WMW) via hydrothermal treatment followed by calcination, and used as photoanodes for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). An overall light-to-electricity conversion efficiency (η) of 2.70% was achieved for the DSSC under 100 mW cm⁻² illumination, and this η was found to be much higher than that of the DSSC with ZnO nanowire (NW) as the photoanode (0.71%). The far superior performance of the DSSC with ZnO-NS is essentially attributed to: (i) the film consisting of nanosheets with interconnected nanocrystallites can allow relatively direct pathways for the transportation of electrons as the nanosheets have a regular structure with the sheets being oriented to the electrode; (ii) the nanocrystallites assembly and porous character of the nanosheets can provide a large surface area for dye adsorption, which is in favor of enhancing the light absorption and the light propagation; (iii) the nanopores embedded in the nanosheet can act as “branch lines” for more efficient electrolyte diffusion into the interstice of the densely packed nanosheets in the array. A further improvement in the efficiency of the DSSC with ZnO-NS was achieved through the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of an ultrathin titanium oxide (TiO₂) layer onto the ZnO-NS layer. The larger charge transfer resistance along with the introduction of a TiO₂ shell is thought to reduce the surface recombination and thus contribute to the increase in the open circuit voltage (V_oc) of the DSCs and higher conversion efficiency (3.09%).