title: Three dimensional indium-tin-oxide nanorod array for charge collection in dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: In this article, we report the design, fabrication, characterization, and simulation of three-dimensional (3D) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), using ordered indium-tin-oxide (ITO) nanorod (NR) arrays as the photoanode, and compare them with conventional planar (2D) DSSCs. The ITO NR array used in the 3D cell greatly improves its performance by providing shorter electron pathways and reducing the recombination rate of the photogenerated electrons. We observed a 10-20% enhancement of the energy conversion efficiency, primarily due to an increased short circuit current. This finding supports the concept of using 3D photoanodes with optically transparent and conducting nanorods for the enhancement of the energy-harvesting devices that require short charge collection distance without sacrificing the optical thickness. Thus, unlike the conventional solar cell structure, the functions for photon collection and charge transport are decoupled to allow for improved cell designs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, ‡Materials Research Institute, Northwestern University , 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Byunghong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Peijun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Shi-Qiang
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: D Bruce
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Buchholz
authors.forename: Robert P H
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Chang
keywords: air spray; charge collection; dye sensitized solar cell; finite element modeling; indium−tin-oxide nanorod; photonic crystal