Simulation, Analysis, and Characterization of Calcium-Doped ZnO Nanostructures for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

In this research article, the authors have discussed the simulation, analysis, and characterization of calcium-doped zinc oxide (Ca-doped-ZnO) nanostructures for advanced generation solar cells. A comparative study has been performed to envisage the effect of Ca-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NP), seeded Ca-doped ZnO nanorods (NR), and unseeded Ca-doped ZnO NR as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. Simulations were performed in MATLAB fuzzy logic controller to study the effect of various structures on the overall solar cell efficiency. The simulation results show an error of less than 1% in between the simulated and calculated values. This work shows that the diameter of the seeded Ca-doped ZnO NR is greater than that of the unseeded Ca-doped ZnO NR. The incorporation of Ca in the ZnO nanostructure is confirmed using XRD graphs and an EDX spectrum. The optical band gap of the seeded substrate is 3.18 eV, which is higher compared to those of unseeded Ca-doped ZnO NR and Ca-doped ZnO NP, which are 3.16 eV and 3.13 ev, respectively. The increase in optical band gap results in the improvement of the overall solar cell efficiency of the seeded Ca-doped ZnO NR to 1.55%. The incorporation of a seed layer with Ca-doped ZnO NR increases the fill factor and the overall efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC).

Keywords

• DSSC
• chemical bath deposition
• Ca-doped ZnO
• nanorods