Comparison of physical and electrochemical properties of ZnO prepared via different surfactant-assisted precipitation routes

The flakes-, hexagons-, nanoparticle-, and flower-like ZnO nanostructures have been synthesized via different surfactant-assisted precipitation routes. The XRD of all ZnO nanostructures is hexagonal single crystalline in nature and the UV-Vis absorption spectra showed blue shift in wavelength corresponding to bulk. The synthesized zinc-oxide nanopowders were used to fabricate dye solar cells sensitized by N719 dye. The comparative study of cells prepared by above ZnO nanopowders has been done. The highest conversion efficiency (2.48 %) for the cell is shown by flower-like ZnO than the others. The difference in photovoltaic parameters for the ZnO nanopowders is due to the difference in surfactants which directly correlate with surface area and dye loading.