Hierarchically structured microspheres for high-efficiency rutile TiO(2)-based dye-sensitized solar cells.
Peachlike rutile TiO2 microsphere films were successfully produced on transparent conducting fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate via a facile, one-pot chemical bath route at low temperature (T = 80-85 °C) by introducing polyethylene glycol (PEG) as steric dispersant. The formation of TiO2 microspheres composed of nanoneedles was attributed to the acidic medium for the growth of 1D needle-shaped building blocks where the steric interaction of PEG reduced the aggregation of TiO2 nanoneedles and the Ostwald ripening process. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) assembled by employing these complex rutile TiO2 microspheres as photoanodes exhibited a light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 2.55%. It was further improved to a considerably high efficiency of 5.25% upon a series of post-treatments (i.e., calcination, TiCl4 treatment, and O2 plasma exposure) as a direct consequence of the well-crystallized TiO2 for fast electron transport, the enhanced capacity of dye loading, the effective light scattering, and trapping from microstructures.
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, and Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University , Xiamen 361005, China.
Meidan
M
Ye
Dajiang
D
Zheng
Mengye
M
Wang
Chang
C
Chen
Wenming
W
Liao
Changjian
C
Lin
Zhiqun
Z
Lin