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Updated: May 8, 2026

Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Carbon nanohorns as integrative materials for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells
Rubén D Costa1, Sebastian Feihl, Axel Kahnt
1Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91058, Germany.
Abstract:
Different nanocarbons, that is, single-wall carbon nanotubes, graphene, single-wall carbon nanohorns (SWCNHs), and their respective oxidized analogs have been used to fabricate novel doped TiO2 electrodes for DSSCs. Our results indicate that all of the nanocarbons significantly enhance the device characteristics when compared to standard TiO2 electrodes. Overall, our most outstanding finding is that SWCNH derivatives are also a plausible material for developing highly-efficient DSSCs.

