title: ZnO Hierarchical Nanostructure Photoanode in a CdS Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cell.
abstract: A hierarchical array of ZnO nanocones covered with ZnO nanospikes was hydrothermally fabricated and employed as the photoanode in a CdS quantum dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC). This QDSSC outperformed the QDSSC based on a simple ZnO nanocone photoanode in all the four principal photovoltaic parameters. Using the hierarchical photoanode dramatically increased the short circuit current density and also slightly raised the open circuit voltage and the fill factor. As a result, the conversion efficiency of the QDSSC based on the hierarchical photoanode was more than twice that of the QDSSC based on the simple ZnO nanocone photoanode. This improvement is attributable to both the enlarged specific area of the photoanode and the reduction in the recombination of the photoexcited electrons.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices and Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices and Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China; SIP-UCLA Institute for Technology Advancement, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Gengmin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices and Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wentao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices and Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ziyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Nanyang Institute of Technology, Nanyang, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Mingji
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D004566:Electrodes; D049329:Nanostructures; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012993:Solar Energy; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry*; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; C034939:cadmium sulfide; D015034:Zinc Oxide