Realizing omnidirectional light harvesting by employing hierarchical architecture for dye sensitized solar cells.

To improve the omnidirectional light-harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), here we present a dandelion-like structure composed of ZnO hemispherical shells and nanorods. Uniformly distributed hemispherical shells effectively suppress the reflection over the broadband region at incident angles up to 60°, greatly improving the optical absorption of the DSSCs. In addition, modulating the length of the ZnO nanorods controls the omnidirectional characteristics of DSSCs.