Enhancing the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) by Nanostructured Ag-doped ZnO Electrodes

Silver (Ag) - doped ZnO nanoparticles (0 % to 20 %) were synthesized by the microwave method. The structural, optical, and electrochemical properties were observed through Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), UV-Visible spectroscopy, Photoluminescence, and Cyclic-Voltammetry (C-V) techniques. The platinum metal counter electrode was replaced by using dip coating, spin coating, and electrochemical method electrodes. The best current-voltage performance was exhibited by the 5 % Ag-doped ZnO DSSCs constructed by the electrochemical method counter electrode with a conversion efficiency (eta) of 6.19 %, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.58 V, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 19.12 mA/cm(2) and fill factor of 55.08 %. This performance is superior to the counter electrodes made from the spin coating (1.45 %) and dip coating (0.91 %). The higher catalytic behavior of the electrochemical method counter electrode and appearing plasmons peaks in all Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles influence the enhancement of current density and overall conversion efficiency.