A Facile Polyvinylpyrrolidone Assisted Solvothermal Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanowires and Nanoparticles and Their Influence on the Photovoltaic Performance of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

Abstract

A facile polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) assisted solvothermal method was adopted to synthesis Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures. PVP was used as a capping agent as well as a nanoreactor to fabricate ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO nanowires by solvothermal reaction of zinc acetate in polyol medium. The influence of Zn (II)/PVP molar ratio on the size and morphology of ZnO was also investigated. The change in ZnO morphology from well-defined spherical nanoparticles to 1D-nanowire assembly upon varying Zn (II)/PVP molar ratio was observed by using SEM and TEM studies. 1D-ZnO nanowires based DSSC showed enhanced photovoltaic performance due to the absence of electron hopping that limited the electron transport in ZnO nanoparticles. The DSSC fabricated using ZnO nanowires as photoanode exhibited higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.81 % than that fabricated using ZnO nanoparticles (1.13 %) as photoanode.