Dye-sensitized solar cells based on anatase TiO2 nanoparticle/nanowire composites

Dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated based on the composites of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles and single crystalline anatase TiO2 nanowires. Nanoparticle/nanowire composites can possess the advantages of both building blocks, i.e., the high surface area of nanoparticle aggregates and the rapid electron transport rate and the light scattering effect of single-crystalline nanowires. Three different composites were prepared with 5 wt %, 20 wt %, and 77 wt % nanowires, respectively. The performances of composite solar cells were compared with pure nanoparticle cells at a series of film thickness. With low nanowire concentrations (5 wt % and 20 wt %), the composite films maintain similar specific surface area as the pure nanoparticle films, while the composite cells show higher short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage. An enhancement of power efficiency from 6.7% for pure nanoparticle cells to 8.6% for the composite cell with 20 wt % nanowires has been achieved under 1 Sun AM1.5 illumination (100 mW/cm2). For the composite film with 77 wt % nanowires, the nanowires became the major phase. Their less compact packing resulted in significant decrease of the specific surface area, and thus the current density. However, with the increase of film thickness, the current density showed a continuous increase in the whole thickness range up to 17 microm, indicating the improved electron diffusion length due to the formed nanowire network. The nanowires also helped to preserve crack-free thick films. These results show that employing nanoparticle/nanowire composites represents a promising approach for further improving the efficiencies of sensitized solar cells.