Performance analysis of zinc oxide nanorod for DSSC solar cell

Mohd Radzuan, Mohd Syafiq Farhan (2020) Performance analysis of zinc oxide nanorod for DSSC solar cell. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

A solar cell is known as a photovoltaic cell that can convert light energy to electrical energy through the photovoltaic effect. A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is the third generation of solar cells and has the potential to generate green energy attributed to its low cost of the fabrication process, high stability, environmental friendliness, and easy fabrication. This project presents the investigation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod as an electron transport layer. ZnO has high electron mobility. The electron transport layer supports dye molecules and has possession of encouraging energy to receive the photogenerated electrons from the excited state of the natural dye. Furthermore, the photoanode is an important part of DSSC to sustain stability and increase efficiency. The main objective of this project is to analyze the performance of zinc oxide nanorods after control of the seeding phase and growth process. These two processes important part of the performance of ZnO nanorods. The seeding phase to control the thickness of the nanorod and growth process using the hydrothermal method at an annealing temperature of 90Celsius. Design of project for seeding phase created to get the trend from variables input of procedure. The characterization result is to determine the performance of ZnO nanorod. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was performed to observe and examine the structure of ZnO nanorod with different range areas and magnification for structural characterization. In addition, X-Ray diffraction measurement with data analysis was used to identify the crystalline phase of materials and to reveal information about unit cell dimensions. Furthermore, UV-Vis Spectroscopy used to determine the wavelength and absorption of light from ZnO nanorods. The performance of DSSC is determined by analyzing results of characterization. The best performance obtain is Sample 4 with no cycles ten times during seeding with solution filtered and the growth process is facing down position of the sample. This method is to achieve the best performance in term of characterizaation ZnO nanorods for DSSC. The outcome of this research and design of experiments that create could be a stepping stone in ZnO nanorod performance for DSSC solar cells to get the best and higher efficiency. In addition, COMSOL Multiphysics software used to simulate the propagation of light, scattering section, and absorption between cylindrical geometry as a reference to nanorod shape. This simulation experiment analyzes the relationship between nanorod with zinc oxide material and light beam to obtain the electric field. The output from this simulation, can be analyzed and prove the effect of zinc oxide nanorod and electric field reaction.

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