Premium
Constructing 3D Branched Nanowire Coated Macroporous Metal Oxide Electrodes with Homogeneous or Heterogeneous Compositions for Efficient Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Wu WuQiang,
Xu YangFan,
Rao HuaShang,
Feng HaoLin,
Su ChengYong,
Kuang DaiBin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201402371
Subject(s) - nanowire , materials science , nanotechnology , electrode , nanostructure , oxide , solar cell , metal , photovoltaic system , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , chemistry , ecology , engineering , metallurgy , biology
Abstract Light‐harvesting and charge collection have attracted increasing attention in the domain of photovoltaic cells, and can be facilitated dramatically by appropriate design of a photonic nanostructure. However, the applicability of current light‐harvesting photoanode materials with single component and/or morphology (such as, particles, spheres, wires, sheets) is still limited by drawbacks such as insufficient electron–hole separation and/or light‐trapping. Herein, we introduce a universal method to prepare hierarchical assembly of macroporous material–nanowire coated homogenous or heterogeneous metal oxide composite electrodes (TiO 2 –TiO 2 , SnO 2 –TiO 2 , and Zn 2 SnO 4 –TiO 2 ; homogenous refers to a material in which the nanowire and the macroporous material have the same composition, i.e. both are TiO 2 . Heterogeneous refers to a material in which the nanowires and the macroporous material have different compositions). The dye‐sensitized solar cell based on a TiO 2 ‐macroporous material–TiO 2 ‐nanowire homogenous composition electrode shows an impressive conversion efficiency of 9.51 %, which is much higher than that of pure macroporous material‐based photoelectrodes to date.