Facile Synthesis of Hexagonal ZnO Nanorods for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Application

Herein, we report the facile synthesis, characterization and dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application of hexagonal shaped ZnO nanorods. The nanorods were synthesized by facile hydrothermal process at low-temperature and characterized by several techniques to examine the structural, morphological, optical and photovoltaic properties. The morphological and structural studies revealed the large-scale synthesis with well-crystallinity, pure and wurtzite hexagonal phase of synthesized nanorods. Raman-scattering spectrum showed a sharp and strong E-2(high) peak at 437 cm(-1) which further confirmed the formation of wurtzite hexagonal ZnO. The synthesized nanorods were further used as photoanode material to fabricate the DSSC which exhibited good light to electricity conversion efficiency of 1.2%, open circuit current of 0.494 V, short circuit current of 4.68 mA/cm(2) and fill factor of 52.2%. The observed results deduced that simply synthesized ZnO nanomaterials can be used as promising photoanode to fabricate efficient DSSCs.