Quantum-Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells: Effect of Nanostructured TiO2 Morphologies on Photovoltaic Properties

There is a great deal of interest in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) fabricated with nanostructured TiO2 electrodes. Many different dye molecules have been designed and synthesized to achieve high photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Recently, as an alternative to organic dyes, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have been studied for their light-harvesting capability compared with other sensitizers. Accordingly, an attractive configuration to exploit these fascinating properties of semiconductor QDs is the quantum-dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSC) due to their high photoactivity, process realization, and low cost of production. The morphology of TiO2 electrodes included with surface orientation is important for satisfactory assembly of QDSCs in order to improve the efficiency. Breakthroughs allowing an increase in efficiency will advance on two areas of electrode morphology control, namely, (A) TiO2 nanotube electrodes and (B) inverse opal TiO2 electrodes.