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Enhanced dye loading-light harvesting TiO2 photoanode with screen printed nanorod-nanoparticles assembly for highly efficient solar cell

Jalali, M ; Sharif University of Technology | 2015

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2015.04.077
  3. Publisher: Elsevier Ltd , 2015
  4. Abstract:
  5. Morphology tailored TiO2 nano assemblies consisting of nanorods with and without nanoparticle attachments were hydrothermally synthesized and their characteristics and light scattering properties were determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The nanorod-nanoparticles (NR-NP) assemblies and smooth nanorod (NR) double layers were screen printed onto fluorine doped tin oxide coated glass underlayers to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) photoanodes. The double layer heterogeneous hierarchical NR-NP decoration had wide Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) area which resulted in 45.1% dye loading capacity, 18.96 mA cm-2 photocurrent and average photoanode efficiency of 8.07% which was 21% greater than NRs photoanode efficiency. Distinct NR-NPs morphology indicated multiple wave trapping and strong light scattering which was as high as 89.2%. Improvements in NR-NPs DSSCs performance were obtained because of lower resistance to charge transfer (10.07 Ω) and faster diffusion of electrolyte ions (1.22 Mho)
  6. Keywords:
  7. Double layer photoanode ; Nanorod-nanoparticle assembly ; TiO2 ; Charge transfer ; Dye-sensitized solar cells ; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy ; Electron microscopy ; Light scattering ; Morphology ; Nanocomposites ; Nanoparticles ; Nanorods ; Scanning electron microscopy ; Solar cells ; Synthesis (chemical) ; Tin oxides ; Transmission electron microscopy ; Ultraviolet visible spectroscopy ; X ray diffraction ; DSSC ; Dye loading ; Nanoparticle assemblies ; Photo-anodes ; TiO ; Loading
  8. Source: Electrochimica Acta ; Volume 169 , 2015 , Pages 395-401 ; 00134686 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001346861500969X