Study of dye sensitized solar cell application of TiO2 films by atmospheric pressure plasma deposition method

Self-developed, low-cost and convenient-operation atmospheric plasma system was used to perform titanium oxide films deposition, and the application of DSSCs was also assessed. Inorganic precursor (titanium tetraisopropoxide, TTIP) was used to form TiO2 films, and the effects of the deposition times on the characteristic and microstructure had been investigated. Moreover, the system was used to study the core deposition technology of high specific surface area and well-aligned TiO2 nano-dendrites (TNDs) films served as photo-anode for the DSSCs applications. Up to date, the optimal TNDs films with an extra high deposition rate of ~2μm/min revealed the best photo-conversion efficiency of 12.08% for adopting N719 dye and iodine ion electrolyte, under illumination of simulated AM1.5 solar light (100 mWcm-2). In this study, the films synthesized using optimum process parameters with a high specific surface area and well-aligned TNDs morphology can significantly improve the photo-conversion efficiency.