title: Growth of aligned hexagonal ZnO nanorods on FTO substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) application.
abstract: This article reports a facile growth of well-crystalline aligned hexagonal ZnO nanorods on fluorine-doped tin-oxide (FTO) substrate via non-catalytic thermal evaporation process. The morphological investigations done by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal that the grown products are aligned hexagonal ZnO nanorods which are grown in a very high density over the whole substrate surface. The detailed structural properties observed by high-resolution TEM equipped with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed that the synthesized nanorods are well-crystalline possessing wurtzite hexagonal phase and preferentially grown along the c-axis direction. A sharp and strong UV emission at 381 nm in room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum showed that the as-grown ZnO nanorods possess excellent optical properties. The as-grown nanorods were used as photo-anode for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) which exhibits an overall light-to-electricity conversion efficiency (ECE) of 0.7% with V(oc) of 0.571 V, J(sc) of 2.02 mA/cm2 and FF of 0.58.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Nano-Engineering Laboratory (AMNEL), Centre for Advanced Materials and Nano-Engineering (CAMNE), Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Umar
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alharbi
authors.forename: Pragya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Al-Sayari
mesh_terms: D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D012993:Solar Energy; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D015034:Zinc Oxide