Propylene Glycol and Glycerol Addition in Forming Silver Nanowires (AgNWs) for Flexible and Conductive Electrode

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are promising materials due to their flexibility, high transmittance, high conductivity, and low sheet resistances to replace ITO (Indium Thin Oxide) based electrodes. In this work, we studied the Propylene Glycol and Glycerol addition in Ethylene Glycol solvent to form AgNWs with polyol method. AgNWs was made thin film by spin coating method (with 1 – 3 layers variation) in PET substrate at 3000 rpm. The best morphology AgNWs formed by EG: PG: Gliserol (7 : 0 : 3) solvent composition with average diameter, length, and thickness are 210.32 nm, 6.68 μm, and 2.1 μm respectively. In optical properties, transmittance of AgNWs thin film was in range of 54.6 – 70.6 %. The sheet resistance of 3 layers AgNWs thin film was 2.8 – 30.2 Ω/sq. Sheet resistance of AgNWs thin film was better than ITO-PET (transmittance 60% sheet resistance 45 Ω/sq)

Performance of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) with ZnO Nanorod Electrode in Different Seed Solution

Studies of comparing the performance of photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) continue to be carried out and developed. The ZnO nanorods as an electrode for DSSCs have been shown to have high electron collection due to the capability of electron photoexcitation and increased electron transport. Various methods of making ZnO nanorods have been studied and developed. However, the method requires controlled conditions under high temperature and pressure, thus limiting the commercialization of ZnO nanorods. Therefore, the seed solution-based hydrothermal method was chosen in the ZnO nanorod deposition process because it is an effective method, low-cost and easier fabrication process. The method of growing ZnO nanorod was carried out with three times of growing for 6 hours. ZnO nanorod was synthesized using different seed solutions, namely sample 1 and sample 2 by using methoxy and isopropanol, respectively. In this work, the SEM image shows the growth of ZnO nanorods vertically aligned on the FTO substrate and resulted in a smaller diameter for the isopropanol seed solution. The smaller diameter of the ZnO nanorod provides a larger surface area then increasing the total amount of dye attached to the ZnO nanorod and improve the photovoltaic performance.DOI:  10.17977/um024v6i22021p07

Enhanced piezoelectric nanogenerator performance with AZO/NiO heterojunction

ZnO nanorods (NRs) are piezoelectric materials used as nanogenerators because of their ease of synthesis, nontoxicity, low production costs, good electrical properties, and suitable flexibility for human movement as a source of mechanical energy. ZnO NRs are usually doped or composited with other materials to enhance their properties. Here we discuss the effect of the aluminum (Al) doping of ZnO using the hydrothermal method and subsequent coating with NiO to form a p–n junction in a nanogenerator application. According to XRD characterization, Al doping caused a shift in the ZnO NRs diffraction peaks toward a larger angle and a decrease in the diameter of the NRs. The doping of Al and NiO composites could also widen the bandgap. Moreover, current and voltage characterization results showed that the nanogenerator output power was 14.8 µW, which reached saturation (19.5 µW) at 4 % doping. Therefore, Al doping can improve the output power of the nanogenerator compared with pure ZnO

Propylene Glycol and Glycerol Addition in Forming Silver Nanowires (AgNWs) for Flexible and Conductive Electrode

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are promising materials due to their flexibility, high transmittance, high conductivity, and low sheet resistances to replace ITO (Indium Thin Oxide) based electrodes. In this work, we studied the Propylene Glycol and Glycerol addition in Ethylene Glycol solvent to form AgNWs with polyol method. AgNWs was made thin film by spin coating method (with 1 – 3 layers variation) in PET substrate at 3000 rpm. The best morphology AgNWs formed by EG: PG: Gliserol (7 : 0 : 3) solvent composition with average diameter, length, and thickness are 210.32 nm, 6.68 μm, and 2.1 μm respectively. In optical properties, transmittance of AgNWs thin film was in range of 54.6 – 70.6 %. The sheet resistance of 3 layers AgNWs thin film was 2.8 – 30.2 Ω/sq. Sheet resistance of AgNWs thin film was better than ITO-PET (transmittance 60% sheet resistance 45 Ω/sq)

The Effect of Acetylene Carbon Black (ACB) Loaded on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofiber Membrane Electrolyte for DSSC Applications

Nanofiber membranes are starting to be used as an electrolyte storage medium because of their high porosity, which causes ionic conductivity, producing high energy. The ability of nanofiber membranes to absorb electrolytes proves their stability when used for a long time. In this study, the loading of acetylene carbon black (ACB) on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is made by the electrospun method, which in turn is applied as an electrolyte medium in DSSC. Materials characterization was carried out through FTIR to determine the functional groups formed and SEM to observe morphology and diameter distribution. Furthermore, for DSSC performance, efficiency and EIS tests were carried out. The optimum nanofiber membrane was shown by esPACB1, with the highest efficiency reaching 1.92% with a porosity of 73.43%, nanofiber diameter of 172.9 ± 2.2 nm, an absorbance of 1850, and an electron lifetime of 0.003 ms

Ag-doped TiO2 as photoanode for high performance dye sensitized solar cells

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are commonly used as photoanode materials in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The structure of TiO2 can be modified by doping to enhance its optical and electrical performance. The modification carried out in this research was by providing Ag doping on TiO2. Silver (Ag) added to TiO2 is convinced to reduce the recombination and increase the energy level of the photo-excited electrons from the TiO2 conduction band. Ag-doped TiO2 was carried out by a simple mixing method. The microstructure of Ag-doped TiO2 was successfully characterized by XRD and SEM. The absorbance of the Ag-doped TiO2 thin films was measured by UV–Vis spectroscopy, confirming the optimum energy gap of 3.09 eV and resulting in the best PCE of 6.31 %