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Enhanced electron collection efficiency of nanostructured dye‐sensitized solar cells by incorporating TiO 2 cubes
Author(s) -
Sarvari Najme,
Mohammadi Mohammad Reza
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.15184
Subject(s) - materials science , dye sensitized solar cell , energy conversion efficiency , monolayer , nanoparticle , scattering , solar cell , chemical engineering , light scattering , layer (electronics) , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , electrode , optics , chemistry , physics , engineering , electrolyte
Herein, enhancement of dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSC) performance is reported by combining the merits of the dye loading of TiO 2 nanoparticles and light scattering, straight carrier transport path, and efficient electron collection efficiency of TiO 2 cubes. We fabricate DSC devices with various arrangement styles and compositions of the electrodes in the forms of monolayer and double layer films. For this purpose, the solvothermal synthesized TiO 2 cubic particles (100‐600 nm) are employed as the scattering layer, whereas TiO 2 nanoparticles (15‐30 nm) synthesized via a combination of solvothermal and sol‐gel routes are used as the active layer of devices. We improve the photovoltaic characteristics of DSCs by two mechanisms. First, the light harvesting of DSC devices made of nanoparticles is improved by controlling the thickness of monolayer films, reaching the highest efficiency of 7.0%. Second, the light scattering and electron collection efficiency are enhanced by controlling the composition of double layer films composed of mixtures of TiO 2 nanoparticles and cubes, obtaining the maximum efficiency of 8.21%. The enhancements are attributed to balance between charge transfer resistance and charge recombination of photo‐generated electrons as well as dye loading and light scattering.