The Effect of Changing Solvent, Dyes and ZnO Nanosize On The Performance of ZnO Solar Cell

Abstract

The effect of different solvents on Zinc Oxide based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) with Nile Blue were studied. The performance of solar cells with on (FTO/ ZnO/ Blue Nile dye /FTO+ graphite and Iodine ) structures were investigated. under the effect of different solvents, which on (Methanol ,Ethanol ,Acton , Chloroform and Benzene ). Absorption and energy gap were found using UV-VS mini 1240 spectrophotometer and light current-voltage characteristics and XRD. The five (FTO/ ZnO/ Blue Nile dye /FTO+ graphite) solar cells were produced and characterized. provided efficiency (η) were (0.40165,0.3968 ,0.3858 ,0.3719 and 0.3477).which decrease when the absorbance decreases taking values( Methanol = (2.005 a.u) ,Ethanol = (1.4819 a.u ) ,Acton = ( 1.221 a.u ) , Chloroform = ( 0.983 a.u ) and Benzene = ( 0.532 a.u) ). The decrease of efficiency due to absorbance decreasing may be attributed to the decrease of atoms density which decreases with the Nano crystal size. Zinc Oxide based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) with Rose Bengal were fabricated also on FTO glass .The five solvents used were (Methanol ,Ethanol ,Acton, Chloroform and Benzene ). Microstructure and cell performance of the solar cells with (FTO/ ZnO/ Rose Bengal dye /FTO+ graphite and Iodine) structures were investigated taking into account the effect of solvents. Photovoltaic devices based on the ZnO/ Rose Bengal dye hetrojunction structures provided photovoltaic properties under illumination. Absorption and energy gap measurement of the ZnO/ Rose Bengal dye hetrojunction were studied using UV-VS mini 1240 spectrophotometer and light current-voltage characteristics an XRD. The energy gaps of the present solar cells were also found. The five (FTO/ ZnO/ Rose Bengal dye /FTO+ graphite) solar cells were produced and characterized, which provided efficiency (η) and Energy gap (0.6795 for Eg = 2.947 eV ,0.63901 for Eg = 2.951 eV ,0.58821for Eg = 2.958 eV ,0.55262 for Eg = 2.963 eV and 0.50864 for Eg = 2.972 eV) Fill factor (FF) average (0.89) for all cells . This means that the increase of energy gap value decreases efficiency. It was also found that the increase of absorbance and distance between Nano crystal increases the efficiency.