Fabrication of ZnO Nanospheres and Application to Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

In this paper, pure ZnO nanospheres and IO3- ions doped ZnO nanospheres were prepared by heating under reflux with zinc acetate and diethylene glycol as raw materials, and the ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) were prepared. The influences of reaction time and IO3--ions dope on ZnO properties were studied. DSCs properties prepared with obtained ZnO nanospheres were investied. ZnO nanospheres were characterized by XRD, SEM and infrared absorption spectrogram. The results showed that when the temperature was 160 degrees C, ZnO nanospheres with diameter 100-800nm were obtained. When reaction time was 2h, ZnO diameter was about 500nm. When the reaction time was 24h, the diameter of ZnO was about 800nm with wider distribution. The ZnO DSCs were prepared by using ZnO nanopowders with different reaction time as photoanode. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of 24h-ZnO DSCs was the highest. The photoelectric conversion efficiency, open circuit voltage, short-circuit current and fill factor were 2.15%, 0.64V, 6.47 mA.cm(-2), 0.52, respectively.