Synergistic effect of TiCl4-ZnO treated TiO2 nanotubes in dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Oxide semiconducting TiO2 nanoparticles (TNPs) with TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) have attracted considerable attention because of a fast electron migration process in the photoelectrode. However, TNT films of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) displayed low conversion efficiency because of lower dye loading and sunlight absorption than in the case of TNPs films. For high-performance DSSCs, an aqueous solution treatment using titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and zinc oxide (ZnO) was used on the TNT film. The TNT array was prepared by an anodization process. Herein, we studied that a double dip-coating TiCl4-ZnO treatment of the TNTs enhanced photocurrent density and fill factor due to an improvement in electron transfer, increase in dye adsorption, and reduction in the recombination charge rate. The results show that the DSSCs with a TiCl4-ZnO treatment show a maximum conversion efficiency of 8.29% and J(SC) of 21.19mA/cm(2) under a simulated solar light irradiation of 100mW/cm(2) (AM 1.5). (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics