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Mathew, S., Yella, A., Gao, P., Humphry-Baker, R., Curchod, B.F.E., Ashari-Astani, N., Tavernelli, I., Rothlisberger, U., Nazeeruddin, M.K. and Grätzel, M. (2014) Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with 13% Efficiency Achieved Through the Molecular Engineering of Porphyrin Sensitizers, Nature Chemistry, 6, 242-247.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1861

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Mass Synthesis in Polyol of Tailored Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Applications

  AUTHORS: Mongia Hosni, Ivaylo Hinkov, Christian Ricolleau, Thierry Pauporté, Samir Farhat, Noureddine Jouini

  KEYWORDS: Zinc Oxide, Polyol Process, Nanoparticles, Scale-Up Strategy, Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

  JOURNAL NAME: Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology, Vol.6 No.1, February 24, 2016

  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.