Highly ordered TiO2 nanorod arrays (NRAs) were directly grown on an F:SnO2 (FTO) substrate without any seed layer by hydrothermal route. For a larger surface area, the second-step hydrothermal treatment in hydrochloric acid was carried out to the as-prepared TiO2 NRAs. The results showed that the center portion of the TiO2 nanorods were dissolved in the etching solution to form a nanocave at th...

Sensitized NiO based photocathode is a new field of investigation with increasing scientific interest in relation with the development of tandem dye-sensitized solar cells (photovoltaic) and dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthetic cells (solar fuel). We demonstrate herein that PbS quantum dots (QDs) represent promising inorganic sensitizers for NiO-based quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs)...

An environmentally friendly solid-state quantum dot sensitized solar cell (ss-QDSSC) was prepared by combining colloidal SnS QDs as the sensitizer and organic hole scavenger spiro-OMeTAD (2,2',7,7'-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)9,9'-spirobifluorene) as the solid-state electrolyte, and the energy alignment of SnS and TiO2 was investigated. The bandgap of colloidal SnS QDs increased with ...

ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized via novel Sol-gel route. The effects of pH variation as well as ageing were studied. The nanoparticles were synthesized with two different pH levels viz. pH 7 and pH 10. It was found that the size of the nanoparticles increased from 19 to 39.6 nm with increase in pH level from 7 to 10. Further the effect of ageing on the ZnO nanoparticles was studied. It was f...

Despite the potential of PbS quantum dots (QDs) as sensitizers for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), achieving a high photocurrent density over 30 mA cm(-2) remains a challenging task in PbS-sensitized solar cells. In contrast to previous attempts, where Hg(2+)-doping or multi-step post-treatment is necessary, we are capable of achieving a high photocurrent exceeding 30 mA cm(-2) sim...

A new approach by inserting a layer of ZnSe QDs was studied to enhance the adsorption of CdS/CdSe QDs resulting in much improved power conversion efficiency. ZnSe, CdS and CdSe QDs were sequentially assembled on a nanocrystalline TiO2 film to prepare a ZnSe/CdS/CdSe sensitized photoelectrode for QD-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) applications. The results show that the performance of QDSSCs is st...