Composite electrode of TiO sub(2) particles with different crystal phases and morphology to significantly improve the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

A novel composite electrode containing brookite TiO sub(2) quasi nanocubes and anatase TiO sub(2) sea urchin-like microspheres is fabricated for improving the dye-sensitized solar cell's performance. The brookite nanocubes have a mean size of similar to 50 nm, and the anatase microspheres with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:RSC advances 2015-04, Vol.5 (41), p.32536-32545
Main Authors: Xu, Jinlei, Jin, Jingpeng, Ying, Zihao, Shi, Wenye, Peng, Tianyou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatase
Brookite
Electrodes
Microspheres
Nanostructure
Photovoltaic cells
Solar cells
Titanium dioxide
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Summary:A novel composite electrode containing brookite TiO sub(2) quasi nanocubes and anatase TiO sub(2) sea urchin-like microspheres is fabricated for improving the dye-sensitized solar cell's performance. The brookite nanocubes have a mean size of similar to 50 nm, and the anatase microspheres with similar to 3 mu m diameter display hierarchical structures composed of secondary TiO sub(2) nanoribbons and nanoparticles. An optimal efficiency of 7.09% is obtained from the solar cell fabricated with a composite TiO sub(2) electrode containing 30 wt% nanocubes and 70 wt% microspheres, with 81% or 30% improvement in the efficiency as compared to the single nanocube or microsphere film-based cell. Those brookite nanocubes in the microsphere film can fill the interspaces of the hierarchical microspheres, which can not only enhance the dye-loading, but also reduce the charge recombination. All these lead to a higher voltage and current, leading to the improved performance of the anatase TiO sub(2) film-based solar cell.
ISSN:2046-2069
DOI:10.1039/c5ra01122a