Development of Anti-Reflection Coating Layer for Efficiency Enhancement of ZnO Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

In this research, we investigated the effects of ZnO anti-reflection coating layers on power conversion efficiency enhancement of ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells. ZnO thin films were prepared by rf-magnetron sputtering by varying sputtering time of 10, 30, 60, 80, 100 min. Surface morphology, thickness and optical reflective index were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and ellipsometry. Then, transmittance and reflectance were investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, we found that ZnO anti-reflection coating layers with sputtering time of 30 and 60 min showed lower reflection and higher transmission than that of reference film. In addition, ZnO anti-reflection coating layers have rough surface with sputtering rate has 2.14 nm/min. Thus, the ZnO anti-reflection coating layers with sputtering time in the range of 10-60 min have a potential as anti-reflection coating applications. The ZnO anti-reflection coating layers were used in ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells and exhibited a short circuit current density of 5.16 mA/cm2 and the maximum power conversion efficiency of 1.54% from a sample with sputtering time at 60 min while the reference cell exhibited 3.88 mA/cm2 and 1.19%, respectively. Thus, we suggested an alternative improvement of ZnO DSSCs by adding the ZnO anti-reflection coating layers.