Zinc oxide nanorods dye sensitized solar cell | |
| Author | Mana Poyai |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ME-08-06 |
| Subject(s) | Dye-sensitized solar cells Nanoparticles |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Microelectronics, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. ME-08-06 |
| Abstract | The continuously increasing of energy demands, especially petroleum products, will result in severe global warming crisis. Moreover, petroleum that has been the source of energy for many decades will be short of supply in the very near future. So, the energy harvesting from nature, such as wind and sun etc., will be important to be given attention because it is abundant and environment friendly. Tapping the energy from the sun will be essential and many researchers have tried to develop high efficiency and low cost solar cells to convert sun light to electricity in order to use in our day life. Dye sensitized solar cells or DSSC is one type of solar cells that has attracted a lot of attention in recent times due to its promises for low fabrication cost. In this thesis, we focus on the study of a new method to improve the performance of dye sensitized solar cell by changing the photo electrode from TiO2 nanoparticles to ZnO nanorods for better charge transport. Moreover, improved seeding method from hydrolysis to sol-gel techniques increased efficiency from 0.1% to 0.5% due to higher surface area of ZnO nanorods synthesized by increasing concentration of chemicals during processing which resulted in the efficiency of the 1 cm2 solar cells to increase from 0.08% to 0.57%. In addition, we employed two steps seeding process for increasing surface area which produced more than 2% efficiency, very close to the best reported efficiency of ZnO solar cells till date. Moreover, we employed gold (Au) nanoparticles by attaching them onto the semiconductor matrix in order to reduce electron recombination and increase efficiency. Form I-V characteristics of the solar cells, we found that by using gold (Au) nanoparticles in ZnO nanorods DSSC efficiency of cells increased from 0.57% to 0.68%. We extended the use of metal nanoparticles such as silver (Ag) nanoparticles in order to compare the solar cell efficiency for DSSC’s fabricated using with gold (Au) nanoparticles in the ZnO nanorods matrix. So, more extensive work needs to be carried out with silver nanoparticles as we found the results from the use of gold nanoparticles to be more exciting. Moreover, we also started improving sealing process for protecting electrolyte from leaking which resulted in cells increased life of solar cells and were found to be intact even after one month. |
| Year | 2008 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. ME-08-06 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Industrial Systems Engineering (DISE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Microelectronics (ME) |
| Chairperson(s) | Dutta, Joydeep |
| Examination Committee(s) | Chanchana Thanachayanont;Nazhad, Mousa |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | RTG Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2008 |