One-step large-scale synthesis of porous ZnO nanofibers and their application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A one-step thermal evaporation and vapor-phase transport method was utilized to synthesize porous ZnO nanofibers in large scale. The synthesized nanofibers are highly porous, with diameters in the range of 200–700 nm and lengths of several micrometers. The addition of the CuCl₂·2H₂O into the Zn precursor powder was proved to be critical for the formation of the porous structures, which were proposed to be resulted from the decomposition of the unstable Cl-containing intermediate products such as zinc hydroxide chloride or zinc oxide chloride hydrate phases. In addition, a demonstration of applying the porous ZnO nanofibers as the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells is provided.