Design of multi-porous layer for dye-sensitized solar cells by doping with TiO2 nanoparticles

We propose a multi-layer dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Conventional DSSC components use a singular TiO2 particle size and a mono-layer active layer, but we demonstrate a multi-layer and multi-scale TiO2 particle based DSSC. Doping with large TiO2 particles can produce light scattering inside the DSSC component. Light scattering effects reduce TiO2 absorption at wavelengths of 200-300 nm. The unabsorbed light zig-zags between the Pt back electrode layer and the substrate, and enhances the Ru-dye absorption. To enhance the scattering, we doped the active layer with 20 wt% of large diameter TiO2. The multi-layer DSSC increases efficiency by about 15% compared with standard DSSCs.