A scattering layer composed of electrosprayed polydispersed-size nanocrystallite TiO2 for high efficiency dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Polydispersed-size nanocrystallite titanium dioxide (TiO₂) with a large surface area is fabricated by nozzle-less electrospraying using titanium isopropoxide (TIP)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) ethanol solution. The polydispersed TiO₂ nanoparticles are applied to dye sensitized solar cells as a novel scattering layer, which balances both dye loading and light trapping. An optimal high efficiency of 8.71% is achieved with the polydispersed-size TiO₂ nanoparticles as the scattering layer when compared with an efficiency of 7.17% obtained for the photoanode with the traditional scattering layer made of 200 nm monodispersed TiO₂ nanoparticles, which represents a 22% increase.