Nd-doped TiO2 nanorods: preparation and application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Monodispersed Nd-doped TiO2 nanorods (20 nm x 2 nm) were synthesized by solvothermal methods and characterized by TEM, XRD, and EDS. Application of the nanorods for modifying conventional photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated. Data show that, after modification, an enhancement of the incident-photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) in the whole range of visible light was observed and an increase of 33.3% for overall conversion efficiency was achieved. Our mechanistic proposal is that Nd ions doped on TiO2 nanorods to some extent enhance the injection of excited electrons and decrease the recombination rate of the injected electrons.