TiO(2) porous electrodes with hierarchical branched inner channels for charge transport in viscous electrolytes.
Titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) photoelectrodes with micro/nano hierarchical branched inner channels have been prepared by an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) technique and assembled to form dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Excellent penetration of ionic-liquid electrolytes and enhanced light harvesting in the longer wavelength region are realized within the composite-structure electrode, thus a better fill factor (ff) of 75.3 % and higher conversion efficiency (eta) of 7.1 % are obtained for viscous ionic-liquid electrolytes compared to pure nanostructured films. Hierarchical branched channels in the photoanodes can efficiently improve the transport properties of redox-active species in viscous electrolytes, which is demonstrated by electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The incident monochromatic photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) shows that enhanced light scattering in the composite film is of benefit for light harvesting and thus for solar energy conversion efficiency.
Zhao
Yong
Y
Center for Molecular Science, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China.
Sheng
Xianliang
X
Zhai
Jin
J
Jiang
Lei
L
Yang
Chunhe
C
Sun
Zhongwei
Z
Li
Yongfang
Y
Zhu
Daoben
D