Composite CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones: Efficient materials for photovoltaic and sensing applications

Herein, we report a hydrothermal process to synthesize well-defined and crystalline composite CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones and their efficient utilizations as electrode materials to fabricate photovoltaic and sensor devices. The synthesized material was characterized in detail using several techniques which confirmed its hexagonal nanocones-shaped morphologies with an average diameter of ~ 60–80 nm, well-crystallinity and purity. The sensing behavior of synthesized CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones were examined by investigating the I-V characteristics of various nitroaniline concentrations in phosphate buffer solution (PBS). The synthesized CdO-ZnO hexagonal nanocones electrode showed a rapid response with high sensitivity of ~ 129.82 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² toward the nitroaniline chemical. As a photoanode, the fabricated dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) attained reasonable overall conversion efficiency of ~ 2.55% with high open circuit voltage (V_OC) of ~ 0.810 V and fill factor (FF) of 0.64. The high V_OC and FF could be attributed to the high series resistance, fast recombination rate and large charge transfer resistance of DSSC.