title: Enhanced electron transport in mesoporous TiO2 films modified by sol-gel necking for dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: Mesoporous TiO2 films modified via sol-gel necking were fabricated by dispersing Ti tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP; 8 to 16 wt% over TiO2) with TiO2 nanoparticles in isopropyl alcohol. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with 13 wt% TTIP-modified TiO2 film exhibited significantly improved overall energy conversion efficiency, despite having less adsorbed dye when compared with DSSCs with untreated and TiCl4 post-treated TiO2 films. The improvement can be attributed to the sol-gel necking (or interconnection) between the nanoparticles which leads to a much faster electron transport and a suppression of the recombination (or back electron transfer) between the TiO2 and electrolyte.
authors: School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 712-749, Korea.
authors: Sang-Yeop
authors: SY
authors: An
authors: Jeong-Hyun
authors: JH
authors: Park
authors: Jae-Hong
authors: JH
authors: Kim
authors: Chel-Jong
authors: CJ
authors: Choi
authors: Hyunsoo
authors: H
authors: Kim
authors: Kwang-Soon
authors: KS
authors: Ahn