Accurate control of multishelled ZnO hollow microspheres for dye-sensitized solar cells with high efficiency.

A series of multishelled ZnO hollow microspheres with controlled shell number and inter-shell spacing have been successfully prepared by a simple carbonaceous microsphere templating method, whose large surface area and complex multishelled hollow structure enable them load sufficient dyes and multi-reflect the light for enhancing light harvesting and realize a high conversion efficiency of up to 5.6% when used in dye-sensitized solar cells. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.