Spray deposited ZnO and Ga doped ZnO based DSSC with bromophenol blue dye as sensitizer: Efficiency analysis through DFT approach

Dye sensitized solar cells based on spray deposited ZnO and Ga doped ZnO (GZO) thin film were fabricated with Bromophenol Blue as the photo sensitizer. XRD results show the hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO and GZO thin films with c-axis growth orientation, and the diminished crystalline nature of GZO thin film as the effect of doping. FE-SEM results revealed the morphology induced internal light interaction capability of GZO thin film for better harvesting of photon energy. Photovoltaic studies showed that the DSSC fabricated with GZO thin film has obtained enhanced power conversion efficiency (1%) than the ZnO thin film based DSSC (0.2%), as a result of Ga doping. To investigate the obtained photovoltaic performance of the device, the electronic properties of Bromophenol Blue dye were theoretically analyzed with Density Functional Theory (DFT) study. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.