Photoelectrochemical performance of DSSC with monodisperse and polydisperse ZnO SPs

Zinc oxide, ZnO, is one of oxide semiconductors being used in DSSC. ZnO is promising material for having fairly higher energy band gap and much higher bulk electron mobility than that of anatase TiO₂, the most widely used semiconductor for DSSC photoelectrode. This study introduces the synthesis of ZnO by precipitation method. The synthesis involves ZnAc dihydrate and diethylene glycol (DEG) for the chemicals. Various size of ZnO spherical particles (SPs) are obtained in polydisperse and monodisperse particles. Monolayer and bilayer DSSCs are fabricated in sandwich structure and sensitized with N719 dye for 3 and 5 hours. Monolayer DSSC using monodisperse particles (422 nm) is able to generate highest conversion efficiency of 0.569% (V _oc = 541.3 mV, J_sc = 1.92 mA/cm², and fill factor of 54.78%). Bilayer DSSC, i.e. combined 422 - 185 nm ZnO layer, can optimize the photocurrent action spectra in UV regime leading to high conversion efficiency of 0.568 (V_oc = 568.2 mV, J_sc = 2.22 mA/cm2, and fill factor of 47.25%). The longer sensitizing time does not always produce better conversion efficiency since it can induce the dissolution of Zn atoms and formation of Zn²⁺ - dye resisting the electron transport from dye to ZnO photoelectrode.