Modeling and experiment of dye-sensitized solar cell with vertically aligned ZnO nanorods through chemical bath deposition

A theoretical model based on electron diffusion differential equation and Schottky barrier model was developed to determine the current-voltage characteristics of DSSC. To verify the model DSSC with ZnO nanorods photoelectrode which was chemically bath deposited onto the TCO was fabricated. According to modeling results, increasing of recombination current density J at these interfaces results in a decrease in Schottky barrier height φb and therefore improves the photovoltage under the open-circuit condition. It is found that the open-circuit voltage remains constant when the TCO/ZnO Schottky barrier height was varied in the range of 0.45-0.6 eV. This theoretical model consistents with the experimental result in which the fabricated DSSCs can produce conversion efficiency in the range of 0.98-1.16%. The trend in photovoltage calculated in the theoretical model basically agrees with the experimental result, although the calculated photocurrent is somewhat over estimated compared to the experimental results. The model presents that the ideality factor for ZnO nanorods, which also contributes to the enhancement of photovoltage, increases in the range of 2.75-3.0 as the annealing temperature is increased in the experiment.