Hierarchical TiO₂ flower-spheres with large surface area and high scattering ability: an excellent candidate for high efficiency dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Hierarchical TiO₂ flower-spheres assembled from porous nanosheets-stacked of nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method with one-step. The as-prepared TiO₂ flower-spheres showed a diameter range from 200 nm to 550 nm and a large surface area of 188 m²/g. A double layer photoanode made of P25 nanoparticles and as-prepared TiO₂ flower-spheres was fabricated for the dye sensitized solar cells(DSSCs). The efficient light scattering and dye absorption of the photoanode can be attributed to the top-layer of hierarchical TiO₂ flower-spheres. DSSCs based on the double layers photoanode exhibit a higher energy conversion efficiency of 8.11% with a short-circuit photocurrent density of 17.87 mA/cm², indicating that there is an increase of 38% in the conversion efficiency compared to those based on electrode P25(5.91%, 14.09 mA/cm²).

Keywords

Dye sensitized solar cell / TiO₂ / Double layered photoanode / High specific surface area / Inhomogeneous size

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