Thermal chemical vapor deposition growth of zinc oxide nanostructures for dye-sensitized solar cell fabrication

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using a quasialigned one-dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure. The ZnO nanostructures were grown on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate via a thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). It has been considered that thermal CVD is not suitable for the growth of ZnO nanostructure on ITO/glass due to the high processing temperature. However, we have demonstrated that a densely populated ZnO nanostructure can be prepared on ITO/glass substrate by a double-source double-tube CVD process. The power conversion efficiency of our device is 0.6%. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.