Low temperature dye-sensitized solar cells based on conformal thin zinc oxide overlayer on mesoporous insulating template by atomic layer deposition

Low temperature processing of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs) is essential to enable commercialization with low cost plastic substrates and diminish the overall manufacturing cost. We report a low temperature processing route for photoanodes where thin ZnO nanoshell is deposited by atomic layer deposition at 150 degrees C, on a mesoporous insulating template. We found that a 6 nm ZnO overlayer on a 3 mu m mesoporous nanoparticle Al2O3 template shows a power conversion efficiency of 4.3% with the standard organic sensitizer (coded Y123) and cobalt bipyridine redox mediator. (C) 2014 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.