Annealing effects of ZnO nanorods on dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using ZnO nanorod arrays vertically grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass using a low-temperature hydrothermal method. When the ZnO seed layer was annealed, greater DSSC efficiency was obtained. This may be attributed to the improvement of adhesion between the FTO and the seed layer and the corresponding effective growth of the ZnO nanorods. The DSSCs fabricated using ZnO nanorods which underwent annealing were more efficient than those that did not undergo annealing. The ZnO nanorods which were annealed in N₂/H₂ or O₂ had increased dye loadings due to higher OH concentrations on the hydrophilic surface, which contributed to the improved DSSC efficiency. The fill factor increased after the annealing of the ZnO nanorods, potentially due to the improved crystallinity of the ZnO nanorods. In this study, annealing of both the seed layer and the ZnO nanorods resulted in the greatest DSSC efficiency.