FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS WITH ZNO NANOROD AND NANOPARTICLE PHOTOANODES

• Main Author: Hean, Yusa
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/68472
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The effect of ZnO nanorods (ZnO-NR) and ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NP) structure as photoanodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) has been investigated. For ZnO-NR, the growth process conducted by hydrothermal method with the addition of ammonia as pH regulating agent in the precursor solution. The morphology of the ZnO-NR layer was studied through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) characterization, where the results showed the morphology of ZnO-NR growing perpendicular to the substrate. ZnO-NP with an average particle size of about 30 nm, obtained from commercial products. The crystal structure of ZnO was examined through X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) characterization and the results showed that the diffraction peak pattern corresponds to the crystal plane of ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite crystal structures. The results of the DSSC measurement with ZnO-NP as photoanode, evidently have a higher power conversion efficiency by 3.48% for ZnO-NP and 1.20% for ZnO-NR. Based on the analysis of UV-Vis absorbance spectra, I-V curves and Nyquist plots of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, can be understood the relationship between cell performance and kinetics of electron transfer and charge carrier transport. We found that at 0 V cell voltage, the electron transfer resistance which is related to recombination loss rate due to electron transfer from ZnO to the electrolyte solution, DSSC with ZnO-NP was larger than DSSC with ZnO-NR. However, at cell voltage close to Voc, where electron transfer is expected from dye to ZnO, DSSC with ZnO-NR evidently have larger electron transfer resistance than DSSC with ZnO-NP. With this fact, it can be understood why the performance of DSSC with ZnO-NR is lower than DSSC with ZnO-NP.