Indoline-dye immobilized ZnO nanoparticles for whopping 5.44% light conversion efficiency

Using indoline D102-dye, a whopping 5.44% light-to-electrical conversion efficiency owing to higher current density and open circuit voltage is explored for the ZnO nanoparticles (NPs)-based photoelectrode. The ZnO NPs/D102 dye structure has been designed onto indium-tin-oxide, electrons extractor, conducting and transparent substrate. The ZnO NPs of minimum [0 0 2] direction orientation compared to that of [1 0 0] and [1 0 1] directions, an indication of good charge transporting ability, with agglomerated grains of about 5-10 nm in diameters were immobilized in D102 dye for 1 h for dye loading. Low charge transport resistance and nearly 60% incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency were obtained. The results suggest that D102 dye can be potentially used for obtaining high performance ZnO-based dye-sensitized nanostructured solar cells. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Authors are greatly thankful to projects; (a) a grant from the cooperative R&D Program (B551179-08-03-00) funded by the Korea Research Council Industrial Science and Technology, Republic of Korea, (b) 'Hydrogen Energy R&D Center', one of the 21st century frontiers R&D program funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea, and (c) National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korea government (MEST) (Grant 2010-0028717), for the financial assistance