Exploring zinc oxide morphologies for aqueous solar cells by a photoelectrochemical, computational, and multivariate
Elisa Maruccia1, Simone Galliano2, Eduardo Schiavo3
1Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24 10129 - Torino Italy federico.bella@polito.it.
Abstract:
Dye-sensitized solar cells assembled with aqueous electrolytes are emerging as a sustainable photovoltaic technology suitable for safe indoor and portable electronics use. While the scientific community is exploring unconventional materials for preparing electrodes and electrolytes, this work presents the first study on zinc oxide as a semiconductor material to fabricate photoanodes for aqueous solar cells. Different morphologies (i.e., nanoparticles, multipods, and desert roses) are synthesized, characterized, and tested in laboratory-scale prototypes. This exploratory work, also integrated by a computational study and a multivariate investigation on the factors that influence electrode sensitization, confirms the possibility of using zinc oxide in the field of aqueous photovoltaics and opens the way to new morphologies and processes of functionalization or surface activation to boost the overall cell efficiency.
More Related Videos
08:29Morphology Control for Fully Printable Organic–Inorganic Bulk-heterojunction Solar Cells Based on a Ti-alkoxide and Semiconducting Polymer
Published on: January 10, 2017
09:32Well-aligned Vertically Oriented ZnO Nanorod Arrays and their Application in Inverted Small Molecule Solar Cells
Published on: April 25, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Balancing Redox Equations
Electrolysis
Electrochemical Systems
The Electrical Double Layer
Processes at Electrodes
Oxygenic Photosynthesis
