Mass Synthesis in Polyol of Tailored Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Applications
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Zinc oxide nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes have been synthesized in polyol using a bottom-up approach. We have studied the scale-up of the process to massively produce high quality nanoparticles of controlled size and shape. The scale-up strategy required the effective mixing of reagents using either axial or radial mixing configurations and was experimentally validated by comparing structural properties of particles obtained in a small and a large size reactor. In addition, the flow patterns in these reactors have been calculated using three-dimensional turbulent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Our results indicate a strong connection between the flow patterns, as obtained by CFD simulations, and the size and shape of the particles. Actually, our pilot scale reactor allowed producing sample aliquots of ~50 grams with nanoparticle sizes ranging from 8 nm to 600 nm and aspect ratio varying from 1 (nanospheres) to 20 (nanorods). After their synthesis, these two nanoparticle classes have been tested as building blocks in D149-dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The measured power conversion efficiency (PCE) was 4.66% for nanorods shaped particles and 4.21% for nanospheres. These values were significantly higher than the 3.90% PCE obtained with commercial Degussa VP20 ZnO nanoparticles.
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux, University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Université Paris Diderot, Chimie ParisTech - PSL, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris
Language: English
Topic: ZnO doping and properties
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2273705405