Nano Express
Direct synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on FTO substrates using a CVD method and the improvement of photovoltaic performance
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3905, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:293 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-293
Published: 6 June 2012Abstract
In this work, we report a direct synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on fluorine-doped tin oxide-coated substrates using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. ZnO nanowires with a length of more than 30 μm were synthesized, and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on the as-grown nanowires were fabricated, which showed improvement of the device performance compared to those fabricated using transferred ZnO nanowires. Dependence of the cell performance on nanowire length and annealing temperature was also examined. This synthesis method provided a straightforward, one-step CVD process to grow relatively long ZnO nanowires and avoided subsequent nanowire transfer process, which simplified DSSC fabrication and improved cell performance.
