title: In-situ microfluidic controlled, low temperature hydrothermal growth of nanoflakes for dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: In this paper, an in-situ microfluidic control unit (MCU) was designed and applied in a hydrothermal synthesis process, which provides an easy way to localize liquid-phase reaction and realize selective synthesis and direct growth of nanostructures as well as their morphology, all in a low-temperature and atmospheric environment. The morphology was controlled through controlling the amount of additivities using the MCU. This achieved a facile fabrication of Al doped ZnO (AZO) nanoflakes vertically grown on flexible polymer substrates with enhanced light scattering and dye loading capabilities. Flexible DSSCs with a significant enhancement (410% compare to ZnO NRs based devices) in power conversion efficiency were obtained using AZO nanoflake photoanodes of 6 μm thick, due to the enhancement in electron mobility and reduction in recombination. This hydrothermal synthesis using the in-situ MCU provides an efficient and scalable technique to synthesize controllable nanostructures with characteristics of easy set-up, low energy consumption and low cost.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering &Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK.|Thin Film Centre, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, PA1 2BE, UK.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 2 YiKuang Street, Harbin, P.R. China, 150080.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black Building, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black Building, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 2 YiKuang Street, Harbin, P.R. China, 150080.
authors.forename: Ping An
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Thin Films, Sensors &Imaging, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, PA1 2BE, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Child
authors.affiliation: Institute of Thin Films, Sensors &Imaging, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, PA1 2BE, UK.
authors.forename: Desmond
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering &Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK.|Thin Film Centre, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, PA1 2BE, UK.
authors.forename: Yong Qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Fu