Structural and properties transformation in ZnO hexagonal nanorod by ruthenium doping and its effect on DSSCs power conversion efficiency
By Iwantono, Iwantono; Saad, Siti Khatijah Md; Yuda, Rischi; Rahman, Mohd Yusri Abd; Umar, Akrajas Ali
Published in Superlattices and Microstructures
2018
Abstract
The addition of metal dopant into ZnO nanocrystals may induce changes both electronic and crystal grow properties, which later modify its photoactivity and surface physico-chemistry properties, improving its photovoltaic performance in DSSCs application. Here we report a dramatic distortion in the crystal grow orientation of ZnO in the presence of ruthenium ion dopant, changing the crystal morphology from fine hexagonal shape nanorod to starfruit-like shape nanorod. We found that such modification in the ZnO nanostructure enhanced photovoltaic properties, in typical case increased up to two times increment to 0.43%, compared to pristine hexagonal nanorod sample (0.2%). The present results may provide alternative strategy to augment the photoactivity of the nanostructure. High performance DSSC device will then be obtained when optimized fabrication procedure is implemented.