TiO2 cement for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

This paper reports a novel method to prepare uniform and stable TiO₂ films via a cementing technique. To consolidate the mesoporous films composed of TiO₂ particles, which acted as aggregates, metastable anatase TiO₂ nanomaterials were employed as cement. After heat treatment, the cement materials can change into a stable sticking substance between the TiO₂ particles. Also, during the additive evaporating of TiO₂ pastes, the cement can suppress the spatial contraction and facilitate the formation of mesoporous films. An energy conversion efficiency of 8.31% was reached by using the cemented photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), attaining 31.1% improvement compared to the pristine sample. Our experimental results further confirm that the cementing method can not only favor the film formation, and reinforce the porous structure, but also enables improved dye adsorption and light harvesting ability in DSCs.