Electronically semitransparent ZnO nanorods with superior electron transport ability for DSSCs and solar photocatalysis

• Published in: Ceramics international Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 7202 - 7208
• Main Authors: Hezam, Abdo, Namratha, K., Drmosh, Q.A., Chandrashekar, Bananakere Nanjegowda, Jayaprakash, Gururaj Kudur, Cheng, Chun, Srikanta Swamy, S., Byrappa, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15-04-2018
• Subjects: Dye sensitized solar cells; Electronically semitransparent; Oxygen vacancies; Solar photocatalysis; ZnO nanorods; ZnO nanorods; Solar photocatalysis; Oxygen vacancies; Electronically semitransparent; Dye sensitized solar cells
• ISSN: 0272-8842; 1873-3956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.01.167

Oxygen vacancies (VO) as intrinsic defects play a key role in determining zinc oxide (ZnO) properties. Herein, ZnO nanorods with uniform morphology have been synthesized via hydrothermal method. The obtained nanorods appear semitransparent in SEM images indicating their electron semitransparent nature (ESN). Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) studies reveal the superior electron transport property of the prepared nanorods further confirming their ESN. XPS, optical absorption, and DSSCs results suggest that the origin of ESN is the presence of an appropriate amount of VO in the ZnO nanorods. Moreover, the obtained ZnO nanorods exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity in decomposition of phenol under sunlight irradiation which is attributed to VO. Our study introduces a fundamental insight into the role of VO in inducing ESN as a new property for ZnO.
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