Enhanced Efficiency of Phosphors Co-Doped TiO2 Nanoparticle via TiCl4 Treatment

Abstract

In this study, we propose a method to enhance the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) pre-treatment on FTO and post-treatment on TiO2 paste. The TiCl4 pre-treatment (passivating layer) improves the bonding strength between the fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) substrate and the porous YAG:Ce phosphor-doped TiO2 layer, reducing the charge recombination ratio at the interface. Further, the TiCl4 post-treatment on TiO2 paste results in an improvement of the photocurrent. In addition, the implementation of dye-sensitized solar cells based on co-doped phosphor and TiO2 nanoparticle via TiCl4 treatment improves light-harvesting, photocurrent generation, and the photoelectric-conversion properties by the conversion-luminescence process. As a result, TiCl4 treatment of phosphor-doped TiO2 nanoparticles showed a better photovoltaic performance with a short-circuit photocurrent density, J(SC), of 16.44 mA/cm(2), FF (fill factor), of 73.45%, and it also achieved an efficiency of 8.60%.