Enhancing the Efficiency of ZnO Nanorod‐Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Through Silver (Ag) Doping via Hydrothermal Processing

In this research, the photoanode material is composed of a semiconductor layer of ZnO nanorods with the addition of Ag metal doping. The addition of Ag doping aims to create a new energy level, which can reduce the potential for cell recombination, resulting in an increase in efficiency in DSSC performance. ZnO with Ag doping has a smaller crystal structure, with a more uniform morphology, allowing an increase in absorbance. Increased absorbance allows an increase in the number of electrons that can be converted into electrical energy.

Abstract

DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cells) is a third-generation photovoltaic device that can convert sunlight into electrical energy by utilizing dyes as active photon-absorbing materials. In this study, ZnO nanorods-based DSSCs with Ag doping were fabricated. ZnO nanorods were grown by the hydrothermal method with an Ag doping variation of 0–0.03 M. Based on the XRD results, it is known that the addition of doping causes a shift in the ZnO diffraction peak to a smaller angle. SEM test results showed that the addition of Ag doping reduced the diameter size and increased the area of ZnO nanorods. In addition, the addition of Ag also results in a decrease in the energy gap from 3.30 to 3.05 eV. There is a significant increase in efficiency in the AZ1 sample of 1.46%, which is better than ZnO nanorods without doping with 0.5% efficiency. Based on the EIS test results, the increase in efficiency is due to a decrease in R _ct resistance (2.68 Ω) and an increase in electron lifetime (16 ms).

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