title: Preparation and properties of a carbon nanotube-based nanocomposite photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: This study fabricates dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on TiO(2)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite photoanodes obtained by the modified acid-catalyzed sol-gel procedure. Results show that incorporating MWCNTs into a TiO(2)-based electrode efficiently improves the physicochemical properties of the solar cell. The results of dye adsorption and cell performance measurements indicate that introducing MWCNTs would improve the roughness factor (from 834 to 1267) of the electrode and the charge recombination of electron/hole (e(-)/h(+)) pairs. These significant changes could lead to higher adsorbed dye quantities, photocurrent and DSSC cell performance. Nevertheless, a higher loading of MWCNTs causes light-harvesting competition that affects the light adsorption of the dye-sensitizer, and consequently reduces the cell efficiency. This study suggests an optimum MWCNT loading in the electrode of 0.3 wt%, and proposes a sol-gel synthesis procedure as a promising method of preparing the TiO(2)-based nanocomposite.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsin-Chu 30043, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chuan-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: Yu-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shu-Hang
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Cheng-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Ching-Chun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yi-Hsiu
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Chen-Chi M
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Min-Chao
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Hsin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Ming-Chi
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Chien-Kuo
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Chuen-Horng
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Fang-Bor
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Weng