1. The Ohio State University, Department of Chemistry, Columbus, OH 43210
Functional Nanocrystal-Nanowire Composite Materials: Synthesis and Electron Transport Properties
Yiying Wu
The Ohio State University, Department of Chemistry, Columbus, OH 43210
We have fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells based on the composites of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles and single crystalline anatase TiO2 nanowires. The advantage of the nanowire-nanocrystal hybrid architecture is to offer the capability of obtaining high surface area and fast electron transport simultaneously, which is desirable for improving the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells.
We have also started to investigate the application of complex oxide nanoparticles in dye-sensitized solar cells. The first complex oxide that we have investigated is Zn2SnO4 nanoparticles. We have synthesized the nanoparticles by hydrothermal methods. Solar cells based on these nanoparticles have achieved an overall light-to-electricity efficiency as high as 3.8% under 1 sun AM 1.5 illumination. In comparison with ZnO and SnO2 as its simple component oxides, a Zn2SnO4 cell is more stable against acidic dyes than a ZnO cell, while it has much better performance than a SnO2 cell. Our results suggest that multication oxides, with the availability of a wide range of compositions and tunable properties, hold great promise as new electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells.