Study of dye sensitized solar cell application of TiO2 nanostructured films synthesis by hydrothermal process

The purpose of this work is to use a hydrothermal process to synthesize titanium dioxide (TiO2) nano-rods (TNRs) film on 15 mm×15 mm size of fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) conductive glass as the photo-anodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A TiO2 seed layer with anatase structure was deposited on a fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate by spin coating. 1.75g potassium titanium oxalate (K2TiO(C2O4)2) was added to the mixture solvent of 100mL containing de-ionized (DI) water and diethylene glycol (DEG), and vigorously stirred for 30 min. The hydrothermal synthesis was conducted at 180 °C for 9 h for the growth of the TiO2 nanowire arrays. N719 dyes as well as the iodine ions electrolyte were served as the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) components, and the DSSC devices were analyzed by I-V meters to determine the photo-conversion efficiency. Up to date, the optimal TNRs films revealed the best photo-conversion efficiency of 5.96% 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 TNRs morphology can significantly improve the photo-conversion efficiency.