Plasma Deposited Polyaniline on Ruthenium Dye Sensitized Zno Thin Film for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

The plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) was used to polymerize polyaniline (PANI) on Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticulate electrodes sensitized with two different ruthenium dyes (N719 and Z907). The prepared PANI/dye/ZnO electrodes were utilized for the fabrication of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). After PECVD polymerization of PANI, the increased size revealed the penetration of PANI into ZnO nanoparticles of dye/ZnO thin film electrodes. The absorption and the optical properties confirmed the existence of the hydrogen bonding between –NH(PANI)....O–Zn (metal oxide). PANI/N719/ZnO electrode based DSSC exhibited a low solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of ∼0.6%, while PANI/Z907/ZnO electrode achieved the higher conversion efficiency of ∼1.31%. The enhancements in the conversion efficiency of PANI/Z907/ZnO based DSSC might attribute to the nature of dye, high adsorption and the good penetration of PANI into dye sensitized ZnO nanoparticulate thin film electrodes which might reduce the degree of excitons recombination and increase the electron transportation.