Effects of the incorporation of carbon spheres into nanostructured TiO2 lm for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Nanoporous TiO2 thin film electrodes were fabricated based on incorporating various amounts of carbon spheres into TiO2 paste followed by thermal treatment. The size of carbon spheres was prepared from 100 to 200 nm. The TiO2 electrodes modified with carbon spheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-visible spectrophotometer. The performances of dye-sensitized solar cells with carbon-sphere-modified TiO2 anodes were investigated. The experimental results indicated that 1.0 wt% of carbon spheres with the size of 100 nm added into TiO2 anode had the most favorable effect on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells compared with other quantities and sizes. The incipient performance of the dye-sensitized solar cell in the investigation was: a Voc of 0.71 V, a Jsc of 12.00 mA cm-2, a i¬ll factor of 56.92% and an efficiency of 4.85%, which was enhanced comparing with that of carbon-free TiO2 electrode under the same experimental conditions. The results revealed the possibility of fabricating dye-sensitized solar cells using nanometer-sized carbon spheres. Key words: Carbon spheres, TiO2 films, dye-sensitized solar cell.