Abstract
We describe the design and performance of a ZnO nanowire-based dye-sensitized solar cell. ZnO nanowires with a branched structure were employed as the wide-band-gap semiconductor to construct dye-sensitized solar cells which exhibit energy conversion efficiencies of 0.5% with internal quantum efficiencies of 70%. The nanowires provide a direct conduction path for electrons between the point of photogeneration and the conducting substrate and may offer improved electron transport compared to films of sintered nanoparticles. The devices have light harvesting efficiencies under 10%, indicating that current densities and efficiencies can be improved by an order of magnitude by increasing the nanowire surface area.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 053114 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-3 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 31 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the University of California Energy Institute’s Energy Science and Technology Program. J.B.B. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
