title: Dye-sensitized solar cell based on spray deposited ZnO thin film: performance analysis through DFT approach.
abstract: A dye-sensitized solar cell based on a spray deposited zinc oxide (ZnO) photoanode with Evans blue as a sensitizer was fabricated. Structural analysis confirms the hexagonal wurtzite phase of the ZnO photoanode with c-axis orientation. Surface morphology of the ZnO photoanode shows uniform distribution of spherically-shaped grains, ranging from 18 nm to 25 nm. The power conversion efficiency of the device was measured as 0.1%. Density functional theory was adopted to study the observed photovoltaic performance of the fabricated device. The analysis of the electronic properties of Evans blue dye showed that it has a pronounced effect on the observed device performance.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanotechnology & Advanced Biomaterials (CeNTAB), School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur 613401, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parthiban
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanotechnology & Advanced Biomaterials (CeNTAB), School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur 613401, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Balamurugan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanotechnology & Advanced Biomaterials (CeNTAB), School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur 613401, Tamil Nadu, India. Electronic address: jp@ece.sastra.edu.
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Jeyaprakash
mesh_terms: D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004566:Electrodes; D004583:Electrons; D005070:Evans Blue / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D011789:Quantum Theory; D012993:Solar Energy; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014732:Vibration; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D005070:Evans Blue; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: Density functional theory; Density of states; Dye sensitized solar cell; Evans blue; ZnO