Synthesis of nanostructural ZnO using hydrothermal method for dye-sensitized solar cells

ZnO nanocrystals with different morphologies were successful synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method combined with and without hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The phases and morphologies of the products were measured using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The results indicated that the ZnO nanocrystals with different morphologies were of hexagonal wurtzite structure. ZnO nanorods were obtained without using CTAB, and then the morphology of ZnO changed to ZnO nanoflower and the density of nanoflower became denser with the increase of CTAB concentration. ZnO nanoflower and ZnO nanorod as photoanode were applied to dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), respectively. The nanoflower shows a higher dye loading, so DSSC with the use of the ZnO nanoflower possesses a higher conversion efficiency than ZnO nanorod.