3D Hierarchical Rutile TiO2 and Metal-free Organic Sensitizer Producing Dye-sensitized Solar Cells 8.6% Conversion Efficiency

Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanoscale architectures comprised of building blocks, with specifically engineered morphologies, are expected to play important roles in the fabrication of ‘next generation’ microelectronic and optoelectronic devices due to their high surface-to-volume ratio as we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2014-08, Vol.4 (1), p.5769-5769, Article 5769
Main Authors: Lin, Jianjian, Heo, Yoon-Uk, Nattestad, Andrew, Sun, Ziqi, Wang, Lianzhou, Kim, Jung Ho, Dou, Shi Xue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
147/137
147/143
639/301/299/890
639/301/299/946
conference-proceeding
Dyes
Efficiency
Fabrication
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrochloric acid
Light scattering
multidisciplinary
Photovoltaic cells
Science
Solar cells
Titanium
Titanium dioxide
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Summary:Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanoscale architectures comprised of building blocks, with specifically engineered morphologies, are expected to play important roles in the fabrication of ‘next generation’ microelectronic and optoelectronic devices due to their high surface-to-volume ratio as well as opto-electronic properties. Herein, a series of well-defined 3D hierarchical rutile TiO 2 architectures (HRT) were successfully prepared using a facile hydrothermal method without any surfactant or template, simply by changing the concentration of hydrochloric acid used in the synthesis. The production of these materials provides, to the best of our knowledge, the first identified example of a ledgewise growth mechanism in a rutile TiO 2 structure. Also for the first time, a Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) combining a HRT is reported in conjunction with a high-extinction-coefficient metal-free organic sensitizer (D149), achieving a conversion efficiency of 5.5%, which is superior to ones employing P25 (4.5%), comparable to state-of-the-art commercial transparent titania anatase paste (5.8%). Further to this, an overall conversion efficiency 8.6% was achieved when HRT was used as the light scattering layer, a considerable improvement over the commercial transparent/reflector titania anatase paste (7.6%), a significantly smaller gap in performance than has been seen previously.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep05769