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Updated: May 13, 2026
Electrospinning of Photocatalytic Electrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells
Published on: June 28, 2017
Potassium-doped zinc oxide as photocathode material in dye-sensitized solar cells
1Michael Grätzel Center for Mesoscopic Solar Cells, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
Abstract:
ZnO nanoparticles are doped with K and applied in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The microstructure and dynamics of hole transportation and recombination are investigated. The morphology of the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles shows a homogeneous distribution with sizes in the range 30-40 nm. When applied in p-type DSCs in combination with C343 as sensitizer, the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles achieve a photovoltaic power conversion efficiency of 0.012 % at full-intensity sunlight. A further study on the device by transient photovoltage/photocurrent decay measurements shows that the K-doped ZnO nanoparticles have an appreciable hole diffusion coefficient (ca. 10(-6) cm(2) s(-1) ). Compared to the widely used p-type NiO nanoparticles, this advantage is crucial for further improving the efficiency of p-type DSCs.
