title: Potassium-doped zinc oxide as photocathode material in dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: ZnO nanoparticles are doped with K and applied in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The microstructure and dynamics of hole transportation and recombination are investigated. The morphology of the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles shows a homogeneous distribution with sizes in the range 30-40 nm. When applied in p-type DSCs in combination with C343 as sensitizer, the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles achieve a photovoltaic power conversion efficiency of 0.012 % at full-intensity sunlight. A further study on the device by transient photovoltage/photocurrent decay measurements shows that the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles have an appreciable hole diffusion coefficient (ca. 10(-6) cm(2) s(-1) ). Compared to the widely used p-type NiO nanoparticles, this advantage is crucial for further improving the efficiency of p-type DSCs.
authors.affiliation: Michael Grätzel Center for Mesoscopic Solar Cells, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Xiaobao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Dekang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yibing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Mingkui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D004396:Coloring Agents; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011188:Potassium / Q000737:chemistry*; D012666:Semiconductors; D012993:Solar Energy; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D011188:Potassium; D015034:Zinc Oxide