A facile route to fabricate an anodic TiO2nanotube-nanoparticle hybrid structure for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

Jia Lin, Xiaolin Liu, Min Guo, Wei Lu, Guoge Zhang, Li Min Zhou, Xianfeng Chen, Haitao Huang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The relatively low internal surface area of anodized TiO2nanotube arrays (TNAs) limits dye adsorption and light capturing in TNA-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here, water treatment of as-anodized TNAs at room temperature was used to tailor the geometry of TNA walls in a controllable way, leading to a hybrid tube wall structure with the outer shell in a tubular morphology and the inner surface consisting of small particles. To enable front-side illumination in DSSCs, the TNAs with porous inner walls were transferred to transparent conductive oxide substrates by a self-detaching and transfer technique. The roughened water-treated TNAs show significantly enhanced internal surface area, leading to improved dye-loading and light-harvesting capabilities. Optimized performance was achieved after water treatment for 2 days, with a power conversion efficiency of 6.06%, increased by ∼33% compared to conventional TNAs. Furthermore, the hybrid TNA nanostructure provides excellent electron transfer and recombination characteristics, thus promising for high efficiency DSSCs.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5148-5153
Number of pages6
JournalNanoscale
Volume4
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Aug 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science(all)

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