Metal-free organic dye sensitized solar cell based on perpendicular zinc oxide nanosheet thick films with high conversion efficiency

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) with a high efficiency of 4.27%, which is superior to that of ZnO-based DSCs containing metal complex dyes such as N-719, under 100 mW cm(-2) illumination, are achieved by using metal-free organic dyes and a perpendicular ZnO nanosheet thick film synthesized by a self-templating method.