Preparation of Nanoporous TiO2Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Nano-porous TiO2 thin films have been widely used as the working electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this work, the phase-pure anatase TiO2 (a-TiO2) and rutile TiO2 (r-TiO2) have been prepared using hydrothermal processes. The investigation of photo-to-electron conversion efficiency of DSSCs fabricated from mixed-TiO2 with a-TiO2 and r-TiO2 ratio of 80 : 20 (A8R2) was performed and compared to that from commercial TiO2 (DP-25). The results showed higher efficiency of DSSC for A8R2 cells with same dependence of cell efficiency on the film thickness for both A8R2 and DP-25 cells. The best efficiency obtained in this work is 5.2% from A8R2 cell with TiO2 film thickness of 12.0 μm. The correlation between the TiO2 films thickness and photoelectron chemical properties of DSSCs fabricated from A8R2 and DP-25 was compared and discussed