Fig 1.
FESEM and HRTEM images of ZnO-based nanostructures.
FESEM images of (a) ZnO nanorods, (b) ZnO nanocons, (c) ZnO–ZnS core–shell nanocones, and (d) HRTEM image of the ZnO-ZnS core-shell structure.
Fig 2.
XRD patterns of the ZnO–ZnS core-shell nanocone arrays on FTO substrate.
Fig 3.
Room-temperature PL spectra of the bare ZnO and the shelled ZnO nanocones.
The inset shows the relative PL intensity ratio between the peak intensity of UV and DLE.
Fig 4.
The band-edge alignments at the heterointerface between ZnO and ZnS semiconductors.
Fig 5.
Optical absorption and reflectance spectra of the samples.
(a) Absorption and (b) reflectance spectra of the ZnO nanorods, nanocons, and ZnO–ZnS core–shell nanocones.
Fig 6.
The photocurrent density–voltage characteristics of the ZnO nanostructures
(a) Comparison of photocurrent density-voltage plot of the DSSCs based on ZnO nanorods, nanocons, and ZnO–ZnS nanocones (b) schematic diagram of the energy levels of the hetrostructure ZnO/ZnS photoelectrode in a DSSC.
Table 1.
Performances of the DSSCs based on ZnO nanorods, nanocons, and heterostructure ZnO–ZnS nanocones.
Fig 7.
EIS Nyquist plots of DSSCs based on different ZnO nanostructures.