Aluminium doping for enhancing charge photoanode ZnO nanorod for DSSC

Renewable energy sources have been developed as alternatives to fossil energy by several sources, such as solar energy and wind power. The progress on solar power conversion to electricity via solar cell is impressively developed to obtain the best performance and low-cost production. This paper studied the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) as it is cost-effective and environmentally friendly compared to the widely used silicon-based cells. However, the low current density and power conversion efficiency are the primary limitations of DSSCs, especially zinc oxide (ZnO)-based DSSCs. In this study, the ZnO nanorod properties are enhanced through aluminium (Al) doping. To find the optimum doping concentration, the concentration of Al was varied at 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%. Al-doped ZnO nanorods were grown by a seed-mediated hydrothermal method at 90℃ for 8 hours. The morphological, structural, optical, and photovoltaic properties of these nanorods were analysed by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and J-V curve analysis. ZnO nanorods with 1.0% Al doping demonstrate photovoltaic performance improvement up to 241.8%.