Vertically aligned ZnO nanorods on hot filament chemical vapor deposition grown graphene oxide thin film substrate: Solar energy conversion

Vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) were grown by the low-temperature hydrothermal method on graphene oxide (GO) coated FTO substrates, where GO was directly deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates using hydrogen (H ₂, 65 sccm) and methane (CH ₄, 50 sccm) through hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) technique. The vertically aligned ZnO NRs were applied as effective photoanode for the fabrication of efficient dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Highly uniform ZnO NRs were grown on GO deposited FTO substrate with the average length of ∼2-4 μm and diameter of ∼200-300 nm. The possible mechanism of grown ZnO NRs clearly revealed the significant role of GO on FTO in architecting the aligned growth of ZnO NRs. The grown vertically aligned ZnO NRs possessed a typical wurtzite hexagonal crystal structure. The structural and the optical studies confirmed the formation of partial hydrogen bonding between surface functional groups of GO and ZnO NRs. A solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of ∼2.5% was achieved by DSSC fabricated with ZnO NRs deposited on graphene oxide (GO-ZnO NRs) thin film photoanode. The presence of GO on FTO substrate expressively increased the surface area of GO-ZnO photoanode, which resulted in high dye loading as well as high light harvesting efficiency and thus ensued the increased photocurrent density and the improved performance of DSSCs.